


18cm

by Samnyeong



Series: CM Universe [1]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: M/M, plus poor attempts at humor, side 2seung, side chansol, side gyuhao - Freeform, side soonseok - Freeform, slight angst but mostly fluff hopefully
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2018-07-27 16:38:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 63,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7626076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samnyeong/pseuds/Samnyeong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>18cm. That was the distance between them. At least Jihoon wished it was as simple as that.</p><p>A crisis in which the Performance Unit is in danger of being cut from the group.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. These Days

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is a little more angsty than originally intended, but I guess that was unavoidable with this kind of theme, haha... I promise it will become lighter ^^;

Junhui gulped down the last of his water once Soonyoung called for yet another break. So far the choreography for the Performance Unit's special solo stage was going horribly. They called it a "special solo stage", but in truth it may as well have been a farewell stage for them. The dancers all remembered the terrible announcement they received from their manager first thing after breakfast about two weeks ago. Due to insufficient funds, the company was thinking about cutting the unit from SEVENTEEN, unless they are able to attract enough audience and raise enough funds _all by themselves_ within the next 3 months.

At the time, the dancers were too shocked to give a big reaction and simply ushered themselves into the practice room in order to work on a plan immediately, but now that nothing solid was actually forming the desperation had started to sink in.

"Why us?" Junhui blurted out, but then quickly covered his mouth shamefully. If it wasn't them, then it'd surely be one of the other two units, and that wasn't any better. Besides, it wasn't like they were actually surprised that they'd be the first to go out of the three. Let's face it, the Performance Unit's specialty didn't seem all that exclusive. Sure, they were "main dancers", but they didn't particularly stand out on stage either, especially since Soonyoung made sure that everyone had a chance to shine in the choreography, not just the Performance Unit. Obviously they can't remove the Vocal Unit, and the Hip Hop Unit had an obvious individual theme. It made sense that people would think the Performance Unit was just formed by those who didn't have what it takes to be in the other two units.

They could argue that without them they wouldn't be self-producing choreography, but Soonyoung was almost sure that Jihoon would find a way to succeed that position. After all, that kid could do everything, they weren't best partners for no reason.  _Partners..._

"No, you're right. It's not fair!" Chan had scooted closer to Junhui, placing a hand on the older's back. It was rare to see Junhui not giving off the usual positive vibe he seemed so full of no matter what sort of situation they were thrown into. He's proven that time and time again, and yet this time he was the first one to crumble.

"Especially to Hoshi-hyung." Minghao added, glancing over at Soonyoung. the only one still standing despite the rigorous dancing they were working on earlier. "I can't believe they would threaten to cut their own choreographer."

"Guys, let's not be selfish." Soonyoung walked over to his teammates, trying to be calm and rational, how would Seungcheol deal with this? "The CEO must have been very troubled by this decision as well, we're not the only ones in a pinch here. Besides, it's not like it's completely helpless. We can do it, right? More like, we _have_ to do it, right?"

Soonyoung looked at each member hopefully, looking for traces of the usual fighting spirit they were so proud of.

"You suck at making pep talks." Soonyoung breathed a sigh of relief as a familiar smile appeared on Chan's face. Minghao and Junhui made noises of agreement as the three of them stood up, ready to go for another round.

As Soonyoung turned around, he felt weight thrown against his back as the other three tackled him to the floor, an intense tickle fight thus broke out.

_Ah, this is it._ The familiar atmosphere of the practice room with just the Performance Unit. The crazily stressful yet goofy times they spend slaving over choreography before finally introducing it to the rest of the group. It was too bad this time they wouldn't be able to share their results with the others nor present it together on the same stage.

After all, "coincidentally", the rest of SEVENTEEN would be performing at a music show on the same day and time slot as their unit's solo stage. Which means, their usual fans would probably all be over there instead of watching them. They had to try attracting non-fans, all from scratch.

_Man, this feels like 17 Project all over again..._

* * *

"Yo, guys." Hansol waved at them from the coffee shop where the other 9 members were already gathered. They had occupied a little sofa corner, more like, forcefully taken over.

The Performance Unit made their way to the group, trying their best not to look too beaten up so that they wouldn't question anything further than "Rough session?" After all, they hadn't broken the news to the other members, yet. The manager wanted them to do so themselves when they've decided the time was "right".

"Hey." Chan pretty much just collapsed into Hansol's arms as soon as he was close enough, leaning his head against the older's shoulder with a blissful sigh. Hansol looked down at him with a lopsided smile, wrapping Chan's hands around a cup of Chai tea he had ordered for him beforehand.

Trying his best not to disturb the young couple, Junhui made his way around them towards the long sofa near the window where Wonwoo was curled up in with a book.

"You guys have been opting out on most of the interviews these past few weeks. Something up?" Junhui almost jumped right back up at Wonwoo's sudden question. It was always the quiet ones that were dangerous, they were too observant. Junhui regretted not sitting next to Seungkwan instead.

"Just, you know, additional practices, and... you know, Woozi worked hard on the new songs, we want to get the lineups just right. The concert is nearing, after all." Junhui replied, sipping his glass of water cautiously.

Wonwoo studied him over his book, "That's right, the concert _is_ nearing... But not as near as the music show. Yet, you guys have been excusing yourselves early from those practices as well. In fact, you guys didn't even bother to show up last t-"

"Wonwoo, leave him alone." Seungcheol came to Junhui's rescue, sitting on the other end of the sofa, patting the younger's shoulder reassuringly. "I'm sure they have their own reasons. The music show is just as important to them as it is for the rest of us. We're a team after all."

Junhui felt his heart drop to the bottom of his stomach and maybe even further. Thankfully neither Wonwoo nor Seungcheol continued their case after that. Unfortunately that was due to Wonwoo finding a different topic to jab at.

"So I see it's 'Woozi' for you."

"...What?" Whatever he was getting at, it can't be anything good for Junhui.

The bespectacled man shrugged, turning a page in his book, "You call everyone else by their real name except for him."

"I just happen to like 'Woozi'-- No, no wait, that's not what it sounds like!" Junhui snatched the book out of Wonwoo's hand as a visible smirk began to appear on the latter's face. It was too late trying to control the blush from spreading, so the Chinese man instead tried to use the book as a shield.

"Dude, at least try to be more subtle about it." Wonwoo wasn't even trying to hide the smugness in his deep-ass voice anymore.

"Don't know what you're talking about. Uh-uh." Junhui has now resorted to baby talk, pretending to be unfamiliar with the Korean language despite years of practice with it already.

His best friend simply rolled his eyes, but didn't exactly press on until Jihoon came along, placing a drink on the glass table in front of the trio on the sofa.

"It's cafe au lait. Thought you would need more caffeine to stay awake for our afternoon schedule." The small-built (but definitely not fragile) Vocal Unit leader stated curtly, almost as though someone had forced him to come over. "I already paid, so I hope you're not allergic or something." He added after a short pause.

"Huh? O-oh, no! It's good! It's great! I love y- I mean _it_. I love it." Junhui blabbered, suddenly forgetting how to make his mouth work properly.

"Right." Jihoon muttered, retreating back to his spot next to Soonyoung and Seokmin.

Junhui regained his posture, picking up the hot beverage, blowing on it a couple of times before tasting it. _Warm._

"Yes, very subtle."

"Are you still going on about that?" Junhui looked at Wonwoo defensively.

"Jun, you're good at acting, but you're not good at being subtle."

"You don't know what you're talking about." Junhui retorted, trying to focus on his drink and hiding the happiness that was threatening to explode out of him like fireworks any second.

Wonwoo and Seungcheol exchanged a glance over Junhui's head. As they say, the bigger the greaseball outside, the purer the heart is inside. At least that seemed to be the case here.

* * *

"So did he like it?" Soonyoung scooted over to make space for Jihoon as he walked back from delivering the cup of cafe au lait.

The smaller man shrugged his shoulder nonchalantly as though it didn't matter either way.

"Aww, come on, Jihoonieeeeee~" Soonyoung began to pinch at his best friend's cheeks.

"Stop it."

Seokmin only laughed and watched on with amusement at his friends' interaction. If he were completely honest and blunt as Jihoon (or maybe not entirely so), he would admit that he wanted to be alone with Soonyoung for a while longer. While he did want to inquire him about all these "individual practice sessions" the Performance Unit has been seemingly doing lately, he also just wanted to, well, spend time with him. They haven't been able to relax for a while like this together without the constant noise that came with the other 11 members. It wasn't like they weren't noisy enough with just the two of them, but still... some more quality time couldn't hurt.

"Don't you agree, Seokmin?" Soonyoung's voice snapped Seokmin out of his thoughts.

"Huh?"

"Our Jihoonie here should tooootally hook up with that dog, Junhui."

"Are you seriously acting drunk in a coffee shop?" Jihoon was too busy dying from secondhand embarrassment to defend himself.

Seokmin smiled fondly at the Performance Unit leader, this guy was on a different level of goofiness, but that was what everyone loved about him. Just like how he _equally_ loves everyone back. That's right, _everyone_. He shouldn't have hoped to have him all to himself in the first place.

"Seokmin, you're spacing out again!" Soonyoung whined, now resting his head on Seokmin's lap and looking up at him with wide puppy eyes.

"Oh, sorry. Well, he's right. It's not a secret that you like him, you know." Seokmin teased, gently pressing a finger into Jihoon's cheek playfully.

"...What do you mean it isn't a secret?" Ah, they all knew this dangerous tone all too well.

"Not important." The lead vocalist tried to remain nonchalant.

"Jihoonie, Jihoonie, anger is bad for the skin-"

"Stay out of this, Kwon Soonyoung. Now what do you mean it's not a secret?" The tone was much more threatening now, if that was even possible.

Despite feeling actual worry for his life, Seokmin still managed to put up his signature smile, "It's not that bad, don't worry-"

"Don't worry?!"

"Relax-"

"RELAX?!" Jihoon's irritation was only growing by each second the conversation progressed.

"Jun is oblivious to it! Pretty sure only the Vocal Unit members know since we spend the most time with you, plus Seungcheol and Soonyoung... But yeah." Seokmin patted Jihoon on the shoulder, attempting to calm him down, which seemed to be working after hearing that at least Junhui himself didn't know about Jihoon's apparently obvious feelings towards the dancer. "I'm a little worried about it though. Is it normal for someone to be that oblivious?"

Jihoon rolled his eyes and plopped down on the cushion. It was fine to just stay like this. Totally. He glanced towards where Junhui was still sitting with Wonwoo, feeling irritation rise back up as Wonwoo whispered in Junhui's ear. Those two were close. Way too close for Jihoon's comfort.

My _comfort?_ Jihoon scowled. It's not like Junhui needed his permission to be close to someone...

"Jihoonieeee, let's go to the park later!"

"Seriously, what did you drink?"

 

 


	2. I'll Sing You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Performance Unit attempts to balance an impossible schedule, Vocal Unit and Hip Hop Unit have a "family meeting" regarding the third unit's odd behavior.  
> Oh yeah, Jihoon sings to Junhui in the park, that's pretty nice, right?

"Okay, so here's the plan," Soonyoung walked back and forth across the park bench, expression completely serious, "We're going to get one of those time-turner thingies from that documentary."

Minghao and Chan blinked, exchanging puzzled glances at each other. "Erm, what documentary...?" Junhui ventured, actually scared to hear the answer.

"You know, that documentary about wizards in England or something."

"Hoshi, that's n-"

"Hush, I'm trying to think. All we have to do is get a plane, fly to Europe, get our hands on one of those, then voila, everything is going to be fine!" Soonyoung threw his arms up in the air triumphantly as the rest of the unit watched him with horror in their eyes as it began to dawn on them that their leader was being a hundred percent serious and may actually fly out on his own if he had to. It was only three days after their last trip to the coffee shop with the whole group, and Soonyoung had already fallen deep into the abyss known as insanity. The manager had informed them about their "preview space", basically the area where they can set up a preview for their solo stage showcase, and apparently it was the park Soonyoung had insisted on going to a couple days ago.

Well, now that they were there, none of them were quite sure what to do. They were supposed to present their preview by the end of this week, but they had a couple of disagreements regarding which segment to present.

_"We should go with the dark concept, everyone likes some manly, powerful dance moves!"_

_"It's the park, there are going to be kids there, the music might scare them."_

_"We're not trying to attract kids though."_

_"Still, think of the children, Soonyoung."_

_"I agree, powerful dance moves attract attention easily."_

_"You just want an excuse to show off your b-boying, Minghao."_

Junhui sighed. They figured they would have a clearer idea if they physically went down and checked out the space themselves, but... having a "dance battle theme" did seem quite intrusive to the park's peaceful atmosphere. He and Soonyoung agreed that a gentler and smoother theme would fit more, but... so far, there was nothing they could come up with that wouldn't make people simply walk away or fall asleep.

So that's how they ended up here, with Soonyoung losing his mind on top of a bench, an unhappy Minghao and a pouting Chan sitting at his feet, and just a completely lost Junhui; at least that wasn't anything new.

...Oh, why does Soonyoung think a time-turner would solve their problem? That's right, aside from deciding what they should prepare for their preview, Soonyoung apparently _promised_ Seungcheol that they'd show up for their interview in the afternoon this time, overlooking the fact that they were supposed to dedicate their afternoon to "secret rehearsals".

 _"It wasn't just any promise, it was a_ pinky-promise _."_ Soonyoung had tried and failed to explain. They figured they should resume their activities with the group sooner or later or else someone was definitely going to catch on, especially Seungcheol.

_"Admit it, he brought Seokmin along and you fell for his puppy eyes."_

_"W-what does Seokmin have anything to do with it? Are you trying to be funny? Well, you've failed! Haha, and that's why you're not part of BooSeokSoon!"_

_"...I don't think that's-"_

_"Back to practice!"_

Anyway, that brings us back to the present with the Performance Unit trying to juggle two problems at the same time. Junhui was starting to worry that none of them would be able to focus on the interview later on if they continued to fry their brains like this. Clearly they weren't getting anything out of just sitting around and feeding each other's anxiety.

"Guys, why don't we... call it a day?" He expected the others to protest more, but they were surprisingly compliant. Maybe the heat was getting to them in addition to the stress... it was nearing noon after all.

The four shuffled back, tired and dejected, to the dorms where a van was waiting outside. Junhui blinked in confusion. Usually there should be more than one... there was no way they could fit thirteen people in there after all.

"Hurry up, where were you guys?! The interview is starting!" A staff waiting in the van shouted at them from the window.

The boys' eyes grew wide as they realized they had spent way more time than they thought pondering in the park. _You have got to be kidding me._ Junhui gritted his teeth with annoyance as he scurried into the vehicle with the others. Coming late to an interview means letting down their leader, the whole group, and the staff members that worked so hard to match their schedules and organize everything so that they can just focus on... well, showing up on time for one thing.

Once safely buckled up, Junhui leaned against the window and sighed. Everything seemed to be getting more and more helpless.

* * *

"Where are they?!" Seungkwan's tone seemed exasperated, but there was more worry than annoyance in his voice. The group had managed to stall some more time for the Performance Unit by suggesting that the interviews go by units. However, now that both units have gone, the situation seemed more urgent than ever. The present members were all gathered in the waiting room, waiting as the staff prepared the set-up for the last unit.

Thankfully, the Performance Unit arrived just in the nick of time and were ushered on stage immediately before anyone could confront them about their lateness and potentially wrangle the truth out of them. Seungkwan certainly didn't seem like he was going to rest until a full explanation was given as he glared at the screen in the waiting room, ready to pounce on the dancers as soon as they were done.

"He looks tired." Jihoon noted, his eyes glued to a particular member as he watched the filming from his spot.

"He?"

" _They_ look tired." Jihoon corrected himself almost too hastily.

Jeonghan snorted. Could this kid be anymore obvious? He couldn't deny it though, the dancers did seem abnormally out of stamina, that was particularly odd for them given their role in the group. Usually they were the last to give out during full rehearsals.

"All right, gather around, children." Jeonghan called, clapping his hands and scooting his chair over to the long table set near the center of the room. The other members began to follow suit obediently, though not exactly in an orderly manner. The mother of the group gently placed a hand flat against the table, "This thing with the Performance Unit... I'm sure we've all noticed it."

Nods of agreement all around the table.

"Now, does anyone have any idea at all what is up with that?"

No response.

Jeonghan glanced over at Seungcheol. Surely as the leader he would have _some_ information, right? Sadly, that wasn't the case.

"I figured they'd eventually explain to us-"

"Eventually is not enough! It's actually starting to show physically that they're overworking! The amount of times they need to excuse themselves from whole group events is getting ridiculous!" Seungkwan cut in, not sugar-coating the agitation in his tone, "We need to get the truth out of them. I don't care by what means."

Seungcheol sighed, knowing very well that Seungkwan had a point, but he wanted to trust that Soonyoung knew what he was doing, that the _Performance Unit_ knew what they were doing. "Well... if it will make everyone feel calmer... I guess Jihoon and I can try talking to Soonyoung during our next production meeting. You know, start small."

"And if that doesn't work?" Wonwoo inquired, concern clear in his voice despite the usual lazy tone clinging on.

"Well... let's just say more drastic measures will be taken." Seungcheol promised.

The room began to grow quieter afterwards as everyone gradually returned to their original positions, not noticing that the Performance Unit had slipped out immediately after receiving an okay for their segment, racing back to the practice room as fast as they could for rehearsal.

By the end of the day, Soonyoung couldn't even get himself to stay awake during the production meeting, forcing Jihoon and Seungcheol to postpone it to a later date.

"So... about the drastic measures-" Seungcheol began as he and Jihoon stared down at Soonyoung's snoring figure that had barely made itself onto the bed.

"I got it."

* * *

Junhui slipped out to the park early in the morning, thinking maybe he'd be able to think of something better on his own now that it was quieter without the constant bickering that has been occurring for the past few days within the unit. He felt vaguely concerned about it, but at the same time, he was certain that it'd take more than just a challenge like this to actually break their bond, everyone was just pressured at the moment... that's all, he hoped.

As he came closer to the bench they were "hanging out" at the day before, he noticed that someone had beaten him to it. A very familiar someone.

"Woozi!" Junhui called out, mostly in surprise but he couldn't hide the delight in his voice as well, which he regretted slightly. Wonwoo was right, he was hopelessly obvious about his affection towards their vocal leader.

"Hey." Jihoon's voice was calm, but his eyebrows raised slightly from surprise upon seeing his fellow band mate, his hand gently tugged out his earbuds.

"I didn't know you come here." Almost by reflex, Junhui took a seat next to the smaller man on the bench, the atmosphere definitely felt more relaxing in comparison to the last time they interacted, which seemed so far away now that he was reminded of it.

"Yeah... it's a nice place for song inspiration, actually. The studio's too cooped up, the dorm is too noisy, same goes for the coffee shop." Jihoon watched as Junhui nodded in understanding, his eyes looking at him intently, the usual Junhui look, to be honest. Whenever he was in a conversation with someone, Junhui would make sure to put all of his attention on his partner, no matter how unimportant or short the topic was. Jihoon knew very well that anyone talking to Junhui would feel, well, special, and in that sense nobody was; Jihoon couldn't help himself from sharing the same feeling, however.

Junhui smiled knowingly, he loved it when Jihoon talked to him about his plans for new songs, their seemed to be so much passion in his eyes whenever he brings them up. He could tell that Jihoon genuinely loved and put immeasurable effort into his works. "The new piece you're working on... what is it?" He prompted.

"It's... not exactly a new piece, it's more of an arrangement. I just finished the instrumental yesterday, and I was thinking about giving it a demo reel with the vocal unit members later." Jihoon explained, offering Junhui one earbud, which the latter took compliantly.

As the music played, Junhui's eyes widened at the familiar tune, "Adore U?"

"Yeah, mellowed down."

"It... sounds like something the vocal unit would sing at the other two unit's funeral."

"...What?"

"I'm kidding with you." Junhui laughed, feeling sweat forming beneath his palms from the awkwardness. Why would he say something so stupid? He was usually good with this stuff, or at least he was trained to be good with compliments, for fanmeets and such. "...Would you sing a part for me?" Junhui asked as the instrumental continued to play from Jihoon's phone. He cringed slightly when the latter shifted away and looked up at him with confusion in his eyes. "I mean, I... it might be easier for me to envision it if you give a little show of how it'd sound like with lyrics." He quickly explained lamely, eyes darting around for any sign of the infamous guitar Jihoon used as a self-defense weapon.

After slight hesitation, Jihoon looked around, making sure that no one else was around them before rewinding the instrumental, singing from the first verse and up to the first chorus to Junhui softly, but his voice rang clearly in the dancer's ears, he could feel a slight warmth engulfing him as he closed his eyes, listening intently to the voice he adored so much. Slightly shy from singing out loud in a park, especially to Junhui, Jihoon eventually stopped, pausing the instrumental, then hurriedly grabbing back his earbuds and putting away his phone, ears slightly red.

Junhui watched his actions curiously, finding Jihoon's surprisingly sheepish actions to be endearing. Gently leaning forward so that they were making eye contact again, Junhui breathed out in almost a whispering tone, "I _really_ like your voice."

"I should hope so, or else my position as the Vocal Unit's leader would be greatly questionable." Jihoon attempted to hide his embarrassment with (what appears to be) confidence.

"Mhm." Junhui hummed nonchalantly, not missing the slight redness that was starting to spread on Jihoon's cheeks. _Man, he's cute... I wonder if that happens whenever he gets complimented?_

"...You're not a bad singer yourself. I know I don't give you a lot of lines, but..."

"Don't worry, I know it's not your decision alone. Besides, I'm perfectly happy as long as I even get a part in your songs." Junhui smiled.

Jihoon was relieved to see that his usual positive energy had returned, he was starting to miss it, and he was smiling back before he could notice himself.

After a moment of silence between them, Junhui finally stood up. "I guess I have to go now. The others are probably starting to wake up. Come to think of it, you're usually one of the last ones to wake up... Don't tell me you just hang out here early in the morning, go back, fall asleep again and refuse to wake up to our calls?" He raised an eyebrow suspiciously at the other man.

"You're overthinking it."

Junhui laughed, jogging back towards the dorm, throwing one last sentence over his shoulder, "This was nice."

"...I really meant it, you know." Jihoon called after him before he could disappear completely out of earshot.

"What?"

"...I really like your voice, too." Jihoon wasn't sure if the dancer heard him or not, and if he did, he certainly didn't show it.

* * *

It was finally the day the Performance Unit were expected to present their preview. As the four stretched in the park, ready for their brief show, Soonyoung couldn't help praising Junhui, "I'm surprised you were able to come up with this idea, I mean, we were all so stressed that we failed to see that the answer was much simpler than we thought."

"Yeah, stress does that to people." Chan muttered unhelpfully as he swung his arms loose in large angles.

Minghao rolled his eyes, but in a playful manner.

"All right, you guys ready?" Soonyoung walked over to the CD player.

The other three gave him a nod.

Soonyoung quickly went back into position after starting the music. A tune familiar to all of them started playing, a tune that brought back memories of their debut, their anticipation, anxiety, and bliss after giving all they've got to present an enjoyable performance. It wasn't anything fancy, the important thing was that they showed the audience how much fun they were having performing, so much that it was contagious, and hopefully by the end, everyone would have a smile on their faces.

Sure enough, their performance attracted a crowd in no time, captivated by their smooth movements, quick and playful banter with each other in-between choreography changes, and their ever-changing expressions which fully conveyed how much fun they were having just doing what they do best. Performing.

"Is that... Adore U?" Hansol stopped walking, a juice box in hand as he tried to peer over the crowd. "Interesting, what exactly's going on though? Mingyu-hyung, can you see?"

The tallest of the boys glanced over, "Oh, hey, it's Minghao and everyone else!"

"Glad to know the only name that exists to you is Minghao's." Jihoon grumbled, still in a foul morning mood (Junhui was right about certain things). He could barely see the performance as he tried peeking through the gaps in-between people, but the crowd seemed restless due to the influence of the Performance Unit's passion.

_Adore you!_

From the brief flash from his peek-gap, Jihoon could have sworn that he saw Jun point to him for the final chorus, but then again, how could he possibly seek him out from this crowd? It was just a coincidence, or rather, wishful thinking.

"When did they plan this?" Hansol let out a low whistle as the performance ended, cheering and clapping along with the crowd, "I mean, was this the thing that was keeping them busy?"

"I sure hope so. I mean, now that it's over they'll be able to do stuff with us again, right?" Mingyu said, sipping his drink nonchalantly.

"'Do stuff'... you seriously couldn't think of a better word choice?" Jihoon sighed. It would be nice if it was as simple as that, but somehow he could feel that it wasn't it. Why would they work so hard over such a small "gig"? Also, why didn't they tell them? Instead of solving his worries, he felt that they increased.

He watched as the Performance Unit smiled, waved, and thanked everyone for watching as they cleaned up the area. Letting out another sigh, Jihoon turned his focus to one particular tanned dancer, "Well, at least he's smiling..."

"Chan! That was amazing!" Hansol called, running over to ruffle his boyfriend's hair affectionately, " _You're_ amazing." He gave such a cheesy grin that Jihoon almost gagged. He was used to Hansol being a fellow cringe-partner whenever the others were being _extra_ extra, but he's slowly starting realize that Hansol was probably the king of cringe worthiness, especially around Chan.

"Yeah, good job." If Mingyu were a cat, he'd be purring, but he's a giant puppy so instead, he immediately looped his arms around Minghao's waist, rubbing his cheek against the top of the shorter's head eagerly. "Wish you had told me beforehand though."

"You'd just make a big deal out of it... like now." Minghao replied, clearly not matching Mingyu's enthusiasm, but nonetheless allowed the shower of affection.

Junhui looked up from his spot, his expression almost expectant as Jihoon made eye contact with him.

"Erm... yeah, that was cool." Jihoon said stiffly, half-stumbling awkwardly towards Soonyoung and giving him a halfhearted pat on the back.

Back towards Junhui, Soonyoung gave Jihoon a skeptical look, amusement gleaming in his eyes, "Really? I was the coolest? Aw, thank you, Jihoonie."

"Forget I said anything."

"Come oonnnn~" The contrast between their members' stage personality and actual personality was shocking sometimes.

Junhui forced himself to keep up his smile while mentally trying to hypnotize himself into thinking that there were more awkward things that could happen, he shouldn't feel awkward now. And he was right.

"It's okay, Jun. I'm sure you can find yourself a romantic partner soon, too." Wonwoo said in a mockingly comforting manner, slinging an arm around the older's shoulders.

"Right, thanks...?" Junhui was slightly shocked to see him there, he hadn't noticed his presence at all even in the small group that happened to catch their performance. He was getting way too good...

"We're not romantic partners." Jihoon quickly denied.

"Sure, sure~" Jihoon scowled, wondering why Soonyoung was being so unhelpful today. Wasn't he the one who's been telling him to go after Junhui ever since he figured out his crush?

"Is something wrong with you and Seokmin? Because if you're trying to play the jealousy card, find someone else." Jihoon hissed in Soonyoung's ear.

Instead of replying, Soonyoung simply copied Wonwoo, slinging an arm around Jihoon's shoulders.

Chan darted his eyes between the two "couples", it was obvious what the two "wing-men" were trying to do, and he could almost see the sparks flying between the four as the awkwardness sunk in deeper. Shrugging lightly, Chan began to head back to the dorm with Hansol still clinging to him, muttering things about giving the younger a massage later, wondering if age somehow also increased oblivion towards mutual affection.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully this didn't feel too rushed, wanted to update as soon as I could since time is going to become an issue soon. I'll still try my best to update in timely manner though! Performance Unit needs more love after all :')


	3. Slip Into the Diamond Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Mingyu discovers Jihoon's "dark secret", Performance Unit attends a photo-shoot for their flyers along with a vocal practice session, all the while being unknowingly tailed by the others.

_Slip into the diamond life oh!... Ah ah ah ah everybody get up_

Rewind.

_Slip into the diamond life oh!... Ah ah ah ah everybody get up_

Rewind.

_Slip into the diamond life oh!... Ah ah ah ah everybody get up_

Rewind.

"Jihoon-hyung, what do you want to eat for dinner?!" Mingyu basically tore out Jihoon's earbud and screamed into his ear. Of course, he was met instantly with a death glare from his music producer, beads of sweat were starting to form on his face as he realized how much danger his life was in. He should have really thought this through, how could he forget his childhood trauma with the guitar?! Before he could apologize, he noticed that the music was still blasting out of the earbud he was holding, recognizing Junhui's part of the song.

The young rapper blinked in confusion. He thought Jihoon was trying to fix a part from a new instrumental he was working on, but turns out all that rewinding was just to listen to Junhui's brief bit... _Wait..._

"Oh my god."

"Mingyu, you're dead."

"You kept yourself in the studio alone all day just to loop Jun-hyung's whispering?!"

"Don't make me repeat myself."

Mingyu dashed out of the studio, instinctively diving behind the couch Minghao and Soonyoung were resting on. Lucky him, two out of the four strongest martial artists in the group were together at the same time, his defense was impermeable-

"Soonyoung, move."

"Anything for you, babe!"

Okay, he miscalculated. Thankfully though, Jihoon was now busy scolding Soonyoung regarding how inappropriate the nickname was, and threatening to tell Seokmin how much of a playboy he was and personally see to it that Soonyoung's crush would never be reciprocated.

Minghao gave a disinterested glance at the two other guys before turning around to face Mingyu, still cowering behind the couch, "What did you do this time?"

"Nothing, honest." Mingyu insisted unconvincingly from his position.

 "Uh... huh..." Minghao rolled his eyes in skepticism but didn't question him further. Mingyu could always find ways to annoy his hyungs, this was normal. He shouldn't have bothered to ask in the first place.

Having won the argument, Jihoon looked up and scanned over the room. Most of the others had probably gone out to eat in their respective "meal groups", guess he was stuck with the take-out group again, not that he was complaining. "So, um... where are Wonwoo and Jun?" Jihoon asked, trying to sound casual, totally not bothered by the possible thought that they might be having a dinner date together.

"Probably at that Chinese place with really spicy noodles. Doubt anyone else is with them, no one else can take that amount of spiciness." Jihoon tried not to look panicked at Soonyoung's response while the latter narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously.

"Nope, we're here." Wonwoo's unique smooth tone glided over from Jihoon's left, and sure enough, the charismatic rapper was sitting on a couch with its back to the rest of the group, giving them a small wave without turning around.

Jihoon tried not to let out a sigh of relief, but he didn't have to since his sense of relief was immediately squandered after walking around the couch and seeing the two's position in full view. Junhui was evidently fast asleep with his head on Wonwoo's lap while the younger ran his fingers through the older's silky dark blonde locks in a soothing manner. Jihoon swallowed uneasily. Junhui was well known for loving skin-ship among the members, Wonwoo, however, was never one to initiate skin-ship, yet here it was, right in front of Jihoon in all its glory. If this wasn't proof of their exceptional closeness with one another, then nothing was.

"Oh, well, if we're going to decide on what to eat, maybe we should wake him-"

"Nah, let him sleep. Guy's had a rough day." Wonwoo cut in, still running his fingers through Junhui's hair.

Jihoon bit back a retort,  _Of course I know he's had a rough day! You're not the only one who notices his every move, you know!_ After all, he had no right. If he actually paid that much attention to him, then he would be able to explain why he seemed so lethargic lately even after breakfast and washing up in the mornings. While Minghao, Chan, and Soonyoung all looked equally exhausted, Junhui had found sleep easy to fall into in comparison to the others.

After deciding on just ordering pizza, the group quickly finished their plates almost as soon as the delivery arrived. Do not underestimate the appetite of five hungry and still-growing boys. Meanwhile, Junhui had slept through the entire meal, refusing to budge from his, apparently, comfy Wonwoo-lap-pillow.

Jihoon bit into the last of his pizza crust bitterly, trying hard not to glare daggers in Wonwoo's direction.

Soonyoung glanced at the clock, "Well, it's about time to turn in. See you in the morning." The choreographer gave Minghao a pat on the shoulder, a brief flash of horror ran through the younger dancer's eyes as they snapped up.

"What? We don't have anything tomorrow morning, and you normally sleep until noon." Jihoon scowled at his friend.

"Um... I meant noon."

"If you say so?" Jihoon shifted his gaze towards Minghao, who fidgeted uncomfortably in his spot before jumping up and making his way to his room, followed by a pouting Mingyu who was very much lost and left-out.

The air became heavy again now that the mood-maker and younger members were gone, Jihoon tried very hard to erase the presence of the other two, but to no avail. He wondered if he should excuse himself first, but before he could, he noticed movement from his left side that seemed so still earlier, followed by a thud.

"Oops." Wonwoo said monotonously as he not-so-subtly shoved Junhui's sleeping figure onto the floor, surprisingly enough, the latter continued to sleep. "He is such a rough sleeper, huh?" This was only met by a skeptical brow-raise from Jihoon. "Sorry to put this baggage on you, but can you take care of this guy? My room has curfew, so..." Before Jihoon could point out that Wonwoo was roommates with Junhui, the Hip Hop Unit member had already slipped away.

Jihoon blinked rapidly down at Junhui, puzzled by the sudden responsibility. What did Wonwoo even mean by "take care" of him?

As if finally responding to the previous disturbance, Junhui finally stirred, opening his eyes hazily. "...Woozi?" He tried to push himself upright quickly, but ended up getting a migraine instead.

A smirk of amusement played on Jihoon's lips, he didn't know someone could look so cute flustered, especially in such a defenseless state. Moments when one first wakes up are precious after all. For the ones around them, anyway. "Finally awake? We had dinner without you. Don't worry, Wonwoo saved you two pizza slices." Jihoon motioned towards the cardboard box left on the table.

"Oh... thanks." Junhui took a slice from the box gingerly, biting into the pastry with baby bites which gradually grew bigger as his body finally registered how famished he really was. Jihoon simply watched him as he eventually finished the first slice, the second slice disappeared almost as soon as it was picked up.

Jihoon watched with slight confusion as Junhui walked back to the couch after throwing away the pizza box. "Aren't you going back to your bedroom?"

Junhui shook his head, fluffing up a pillow near him, "It's past curfew for our room..." Oh, so Wonwoo wasn't lying about that. "I don't think I can deal with a sleep-drunk Soonyoung right now..." Junhui muttered, his words starting to slur again as his head hit the soft pillow. To be completely honest, Jihoon was amazed by how easily Junhui could go back into sleeping mode right after just waking up from a long slumber.

After watching Junhui shift around on the couch for a while, Jihoon retreated back to his own room without so much as uttering a goodnight. Junhui felt slightly disappointed by this, but decided he was too tired to feel sorry for himself at this current time. Before he completely fell asleep, however, he felt some sort of fabric cover his body and opened his eyes.

"Oh." Jihoon looked down at him, still half-gripping the blanket. His cheeks were tinted pink from getting caught in the act, but thankfully Junhui wasn't able to tell due to the lack of light. "Sorry, I thought you were asleep."

Junhui smiled up brightly at him, "It's no problem. Thanks, but do you have a spare blanket?"

Jihoon hadn't thought that far. His eyes darted around, wondering if he should lie and say he did, since Junhui seemed like the type to give back his blanket if he told him the truth. However, Junhui had already figured it out from the long response time, and had slid down from the couch onto the carpeted floor, the blanket draped over his shoulder. He motioned for Jihoon to sit down next to him.

Trying not to stiffen up, Jihoon complied, knowing Junhui would over-analyze his rejection and potentially take it personally. The plan to not stiffen up grew increasingly difficult as Junhui scooted even closer to him, finally closing the gap between them as their arms brushed against each other. Jihoon didn't understand where Junhui was going with this until the latter draped the blanket over both of them.

"...What are you doing?"

"Seemed like the logical answer. You're missing a blanket, I'm missing some company." Junhui replied, his smile unwavering.

Jihoon grumbled, but found his body naturally relaxing and leaning against the warmth next to him. Junhui in turn tucked Jihoon's head under his chin almost in a protective manner, "You're so small..."

"Watch it."

"I just meant that... well, it feels nice. Cuddling. With you." Junhui said, stumbling over his words slightly, trying not to panic over the fact that he was _actually_ _cuddling_ with Jihoon, and the latter hadn't tried to beat him up or escape, yet.

Jihoon didn't reply, but felt his heartbeat pick up its pace. Closing his eyes with a sigh, for once, Jihoon felt that it wasn't so bad being small.

* * *

"Jihoon! Jihoonie! Geez, why was he sleeping in such a place?" Seungcheol muttered, trying to shake the smaller boy awake as the other members crowded around the couch, attempting to aid in the impossible mission of waking their vocal leader up. They've never succeeded even once, but it's already become sort of a ritual.

"I've got his, hyung." Mingyu made his way to the front with a phone in hand, placing an earbud in Jihoon's ear, he pressed play.

_Slip into the diamond life-_

Jihoon's eyes immediately flew open, looking around with bewilderment. Mingyu quickly slipped the earbud out after pausing the music.

"Wow, that's amazing, what song did you use?" Seungkwan asked, grabbing Mingyu's phone before the latter could hide it away. "Ohhh, wasn't this the song we made before our debut?"

"The one with the excessive whispering from the Performance Unit members, right?" Jeonghan piped in, looking over Seungkwan's shoulder.

"Chan didn't get to whisper. He didn't even get a solo line." Hansol pointed out, feeling the need to wedge his boyfriend in every conversation.

"Yeah, well, he got to share his line with you, right?" Jihoon groaned tiredly, just glad that no one has figured out (aside from Mingyu) the reason for him waking up immediately.

"That's right." Hansol replied needlessly, an obviously pleased look on his face.

Jihoon attempted to blink the sleep away, trying to make out all the faces around him, "Where's Jun?"

The group fell into a hush.

"...So you wake up, and the first person you ask for is Jun..." Jeonghan squinted.

"Come to think of it, Junhui didn't come back to his room last night..." Wonwoo added, also squinting. Jihoon rolled his eyes at how fake the seemingly emo man could be. After all, he was the one who made it so that Junhui couldn't return to his room in the first place.

"Did you sin?" Jisoo asked, a calm look over his face despite the question.

"What? No! We just cuddled!" Jihoon made an outraged look at the older singer, he couldn't believe his ears. _That_ was the first thing they assumed?

"...You cuddled. With Jun." Jeonghan repeated, sharing a glance with the others, then putting a hand on Jihoon's forehead, "Maybe you should go back to sleep."

"What? It's Jun, he cuddles everyone."

"Yes, what we don't believe is that _you_ cuddled Jun." Seungcheol explained, looking at him with concern in his eyes. "I hope Jun's still in one piece."

Jihoon shoved the blanket off him, getting up from the sofa completely exasperated. It was way too early to be extra.  _Early...?_ "Why are you guys up? We don't have anything scheduled in the morning." He scowled, looking towards the group's leader for an answer.

"Apparently the Performance Unit are going off somewhere, they're probably getting into their van right at this moment." Seungcheol explained, half-dragging Jihoon down the stairs and towards the door, "We already called two taxis to tail them."

"Wait, I didn't agree on going on this creepy stalker adventure with you guys." Jihoon groaned, failing to summon enough strength to break free from Seungcheol's grip.

"We're a team, right? That means we do absolutely everything together." Seokmin piped up behind him cheerfully as Jihoon found himself getting shoved into a vehicle with some of the other members filing in after him, closing off all possible escape routes for him.

"I should really find time and draw up a contract regarding that..." Jihoon muttered, crossing his arms and submitting to his fate.

* * *

"Why are they entering that shady-looking building?" Jeonghan whispered, peeking out from the backseat as they watched the Performance Unit exit their van, filing into the building.

"Do you think they're being blackmailed and kidnapped?" Jisoo added, peeking out from the other side.

"You watch too much anime, Josh." Hansol rolled his eyes, squinting up at the sign, "It's just a recording studio."

"Or so they claim."

"Stop it, Joshua."

One-by-one, the members exited their vehicles, all looking up at the building. The only way to find out why the Performance Unit would come here on their own was to enter.

They found the Performance Unit members surprisingly easily as they made their way inside, catching sight of them just around the corner. It seemed like they were in a middle of a photo shoot or so as each member posed individually, then a couple shots with different match-ups of members, then group photos, pretty much the usual. Due to the lighting, Jihoon was certain that the dancers weren't able to see them and would probably pass them off as staff members among the other shadows off set.

Jihoon knew that Junhui's had experience with modelling not just with the group but back in China during his acting days as well, but now that he was actually seeing it without being distracted by his own bit or actually being on set with him,  _Damn, he's good and he knows it._ His confidence shined brighter than ever now that he wasn't obscured by the other members.

The rest of the Performance Unit wasn't so bad either, they each had their own charms, and the way they could change their expressions and the atmosphere around them instantly almost made them seem inhuman. Jihoon wondered why he hadn't noticed it before... Perhaps they just weren't as enthusiastic during practices as they seemed now, the stress may have eventually got to them, just as it did to each of them at some point, Jihoon's had his own depressing episodes as well, but the group was always there to help him out.

Lost in his own thoughts, Jihoon hadn't noticed they were changing locations until he felt a nudge from Seokmin. The Performance Unit members were now commencing what appears to be a recording session with their own rendition of _Shining Diamond_. Jihoon scowled lightly at the unfamiliar instrumental, when did they have time to arrange it? More like, who arranged it for them?

As the recording session continued, the members became increasingly amazed by their main dancers.

"Wow, I didn't know Minghao could rap like that, his pronunciation's improved so much! Were you giving him private lessons, by any chance?" Jeonghan glanced at Mingyu, who shook his head, a look of awe on his face as he stared at his partner, who was seemingly effortlessly covering most of the rap parts along with Chan.

It was no secret that Soonyoung had a good voice and great technique to boost, but the members felt nonetheless impressed by the power and energy he had. Finally, Junhui's vocals graced Jihoon's ears, the members expressed shock at how much his voice had stabilized compared to pre-debut and how expressive he could make his voice without straining or over exaggerating his tones. Jihoon couldn't help smiling to himself. He's already known how much work Junhui had put in to get where he was now, remembering that Junhui had been afraid of pulling down the team if he couldn't get his vocals more polished.

A tap on his shoulder broke him from his trance, he turned around and noticed Seungcheol motioning for the merged group of two units to follow him out of the building, the car trip back to the dorms seemed abnormally quiet, and Jihoon couldn't process why. Did he miss something while he was stuck in his thoughts about Junhui?

As the two units filed back into the living room in an unusually quiet manner, Seungcheol took a seat on the arm of a couch, sighing before addressing the rest, "I think it's pretty clear now what the Performance Unit is doing."

Jihoon looked at him quizzically. Why was the air so heavy?

"They're thinking about splitting up from us."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because people need to be reminded that most (if not all) members of SVT are triple threat, and also because I'm slightly salty about the Shining Diamond remix, jk.


	4. I'll Come Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of the group are split between "letting the Performance unit break the news when they're ready" and "confronting them upfront".  
> Jihoon decides to confront Junhui himself; meanwhile Mingyu gives (what he deems to be) subtle hints to Minghao, hoping that he will bring the subject up; Seokmin is as lost as ever when it comes to Soonyoung; Hansol and Chan have "the talk". Kind of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is pretty heavy, I tried to make the "side routes" lighter, but well... yeah.

_"Splitting up with us... as in, they're leaving the group?"_  
  
Jihoon closed his eyes, trying to distract himself by starting on a new track in his studio, but flashbacks of the conversation with the members from earlier refused to leave him alone.  
  
_"Why else would they be having these private practices, schedules, and going to places we've never even gone as a group before?"_  
  
_"It does make sense..." Jeonghan mused when Jihoon didn't give a reaction to Seungcheol's explanation._  
  
_"From the looks of it, they've probably already informed the company and they're totally behind it."_  
  
_"Yeah, but, don't you think there's a possibility that_ the company _was the one who suggested this split-up?" Jisoo suggested, looking towards his experience with reading suspense manga for aid._  
  
_The group fell into silence as each member pondered over each possibility._  
  
_With an uncharacteristically cracked voice, Seokmin voiced the question all of them were no doubt wondering but none had the heart to ask out loud, "Do you think... they're leaving because they don't feel valued by us?"_  
  
_This brought on a flurry of different reactions, some yelled out words of denial, some stared in shock, others looked away but nodded in silent agreement. The topic soon shifted to how they were supposed to react when the Performance Unit returns; some wanted to confront them immediately, while others weren't so sure._ They wouldn't have intentionally kept it so secretively for no reason, right?  
  
It was then that Jihoon decided to excuse himself from the conversation and retire to his room of solitude. Unfortunately, he wasn't making any progress at all, the possibility of Junhui being compliant to leaving the group, leaving _him_ , haunted Jihoon to no end. He was so absorbed in these worrisome thoughts that he failed to hear the light knocks on his door, which was eventually opened, and someone entered the room, sliding Jihoon's headphones off so that they could have a proper conversation.  
  
"Hey, the others are worried about you skipping lunch." Well, if it wasn't the source of all his worries, Wen Junhui.  
  
"...The others? You talked to them?" Jihoon was surprised at how calm his voice sounded, but nonetheless couldn't bring himself to look the taller male directly in the eyes, pretending to be focused on the sound waves printed across his screen which currently made no sense whatsoever.  
  
"Well, yeah?" Junhui quirked an eyebrow at Jihoon's odd behavior. This was new, it was usually the other way around.  
  
Without actually noticing the action itself, Jihoon held a breath in. Looks like they went with the pacifist route.  
  
"You're acting kind of strange, is there anything wrong?"  
  
Suddenly, Jihoon felt heat rushing up to his head, he felt dizzy, enraged. This wasn't like when he got picked on for being short at school or when people insisted on a cute image for him despite it clearly going against his real nature and comfort zone. He felt... frustrated, yet he couldn't place a finger on what was to blame, causing his irritation to grow. Before he could process what was happening, by the time he gained controlled over his senses again, he found himself on the floor of the studio, a very shocked Junhui trapped underneath him, probably thankful that the floor was carpeted.  
  
"Woozi-"  
  
"How can you ask that so easily?"  
  
"Come again?"  
  
Jihoon let out a long sigh, an attempt to calm himself down so that he could get his thoughts straight, "Truthfully, don't you think you're being kind of obvious? You, Soonyoung, Minghao, and even Chan. Did you hyungs bully the poor maknae into agreeing to it?"  
  
"Agreeing to what?" A hint of irritation was starting to show in Junhui's tone as well now that he's being accused of forcing something on a beloved dongsaeng and team member, his dark eyes roamed themselves along Jihoon's face, trying and failing to find the source of his rage.  
  
"It's been days, no, weeks. All of us already know that you guys have been sneaking around behind our backs having recording sessions, photo shoots, and even shows in foreign places. I should be asking if there's anything wrong with you, but I won't. You know why?" Jihoon thrust his face aggressively into Junhui's, their foreheads crashed, but Jihoon had somehow numbed the pain already.  
  
Junhui's gaze was frozen from shock once more, for a moment wondering if Jihoon was actually expecting an answer, but before he could give a reaction the other continued his ramble.  
  
"'Cause you'd just give me that stupid grin of yours and claim nothing's wrong! What exactly do I have to do to make you trust me? If there's something bothering you, just tell me! I'm sick and tired of feeling useless and watching you pretend you're not dying from fatigue, do you underst-"  
  
"So basically... you want me to entrust my issues with you?" Junhui interrupted, his eyes still wide from Jihoon's rant.  
  
Somehow, that brought a little sense back to Jihoon as he felt himself start to panic, finally feeling embarrassed by their current position as he gently eased his face away from the older male, "W-well... we're a team, and when one of us isn't feeling great, the others are obligated to help, right?" He grumbled, a stark difference with his previous sharp tone, feeling himself lose the dominating position in the conversation.  
  
"I guess you're right."  
  
Jihoon wondered if he was just imagining the disappointment in Junhui's curt response...  
  
"I'm sorry, Woozi, but this isn't the right time... I promise we'll clear all of this up soon, as a team." Junhui flashed his signature smile, but its usual power to assure Jihoon that everything would be all right wasn't working this time.  
  
"...Be honest with me, Jun, are you... are you leaving us?" He watched as the latter's eyes widened even more, Jihoon held his breath, waiting for Junhui to put him out of his misery, he felt his heart twist painfully when a response didn't come. Leaning down once more, Jihoon found himself cradling Junhui's head gently in his arms, while his own tucked itself snuggly in the crook of the latter's neck, "You know, I... don't want to be apart from you." He whispered so softly that he doubted Junhui was able to catch it, didn't seem like it mattered either way at this point.  
  
A long time (or at least what seemed like a long time) passed as neither of them attempted to move from their positions, no other words were exchanged either, yet it was the calmest that Jihoon's felt since coming back from the Hip Hop Unit and Vocal Unit's unexpected stalking trip.  
  
Junhui had balled his hands into fists, feeling the need to pat Jihoon on the head, assure him that he was thinking too much, and confess that he felt the same way, but he couldn't. He didn't have the right to.

Suddenly, they both heard a dry cough coming from the direction of the doorway, "Um, you forgot to close the door," Seungcheol said, trying to distract his own focus from the two entangled bodies, "Should I, uh..." he began to close the door.

"No, we're fine." Junhui quickly pushed himself off the floor, his arms around Jihoon's waist so that the smaller male wouldn't get shoved off by the force. Once they were both standing up again, Junhui made his way towards the door with Jihoon tagging behind, still clinging onto a corner of Junhui's shirt.

Even after exiting the room, the latter refused to let go.

* * *

"So, uh, how was practice?" Mingyu asked from his spot on the top bunk, trying to look as nonchalant as possible, pretending to be focused on his phone, except it was blatantly frozen at his lockscreen.

"Great, the guys were all very focused." Minghao replied, sliding into his own bed comfortably, he then proceeded to update his personal schedule on his phone.

There was a moment of silence as Mingyu waited for some sort of continuation, maybe an explanation of what exactly the Performance Unit was practicing for, but none came. Chewing his bottom lip, Mingyu ducked down so that he was hanging loosely off the side of his bed, facing Minghao upside-down, "Hao, you know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Where are you going with this, Mingyu?" Minghao's sigh caused a sting in Mingyu's chest that he couldn't fully explain. Even though they slept in the same room, dined in the same room, and even washed off in the same room, it seemed as though he couldn't quite reach the other boy lately, an invisible distance that Minghao had created between them.

"We're dating, right?" Mingyu blurted out.

At this, Minghao put down his phone and finally returned eye contact, "...Do you not want to be?" He asked slowly, his gaze was hard, fixing Mingyu's in place.

"N-no, that' not it! It's just... I kind of miss you," Mingyu hurriedly rushed on as a light scowl formed on Minghao's otherwise pretty and delicate features, "It just feels like... we haven't had much time together, and you're always off with the guys practicing for... _something_." Mingyu held his breath, awaiting for a reaction. The wait felt literally suffocating given Mingyu's uncomfortable position.

After a moment of silence, Minghao scooted closer to the wall, patting the spot next to him, "Come here."

Almost too eagerly, Mingyu unhooked his legs from the side and swung himself down next to his boyfriend, his arms instinctively flew around Minghao's waist as he nuzzled his cheek against his shoulder. Minghao in turn placed a hand on the larger boy's head, caressing it in a soothing manner as he placed gentle kisses along Mingyu's forehead.

"I'm sorry for making you feel lonely, I know you're just a giant puppy."

Mingyu let out a small whine in response.

Minghao continued running his fingers through Mingyu's hair, murmuring words of assurance in the latter's ear until his giant puppy eventually drifted into sleep. Minghao felt slightly guilty about feeling relieved, but it just wasn't the right time to reveal everything. Yet.

* * *

Soonyoung hung around alone in the practice room, puddles of sweat were already forming at his feet as he tried to envision new choreography points. Nothing. Absolutely nothing came to him.

"Soon." A gentle voice prompted as Soonyoung felt something rough being pressed against his cheek. Looking up he was met by the blinding smile of Seokmin and felt almost immediately energized.

Soonyoung in turn broke into a grin as he took the towel gratefully from Seokmin's offering hand, "What are you doing here? I mean, not that I don't want you here, I _do_ want you here, I mean-"

Seokmin laughed, pulling up a chair next to Soonyoung, "Actually, your dancers asked me to come check on you." The Performance Unit leader groaned. Even though it was for a good cause, his friends sure liked to meddle with his business.

"Well, thanks, I really needed some company." Soonyoung scooted closer to his friend, slinging an arm affectionately around the lead vocalist's shoulders, all the while making sure that the sweat clinging to his hair didn't drench Seokmin as well.

Seokmin nodded understandingly, but at the same time wondering if he should confirm the group's suspicion regarding the Performance Unit's intentions. He figured there may not be a better time than this given their schedule may become busier as the year progresses, so he opened his mouth to speak but-

"I like you."

His jaw clamped itself closed once more. He probably heard him wrong. "...What was that?"

"No, I don't like you... I think... I think I love you." Soonyoung stuttered shyly, his beautiful thinly shaped eyes fluttered nervously, "It's different from how I feel with Jihoon and everyone else, I mean, I love them, but... I don't know, I don't find myself wanting to hold them all the time, things like hugging, chatting until it's late and our roommates start yelling at us to get off each other like we do to Chan and Hansol..."

"Y-you want to do that with me?" Seokmin choked out, momentarily forgetting his previous inquiry.

"...Yeah... I guess I do." Soonyoung flashed another shy smile at Seokmin, leaning over so that their foreheads were touching, " _I really do._ "

Seokmin sighed, bringing one hand over to lock fingers with Soonyoung's free hand, "...You're kind of a dork."

"I'm _you're_ dork. If you'd let me, that is."

That was it, one cheeky wink and Seokmin was completely sucked in. No, he was sure that he had already been sucked in since a long time ago, he wondered why it took so long for them to come out with their feelings about each other. Maybe it was because they were already so close that they figured it'd hurt even more if it didn't work out.

_But why now...?_

* * *

"Hansol. Hansol, you're kind of hurting me." Chan winced as Hansol's grip around him tightened. The older boy was currently working on his laptop with one hand, the other was holding onto Chan's hand as it usually did when they worked on writing rap lyrics together. However, today Hansol was being particularly "violent", and Chan couldn't quite figure out why, "Hansol, we need to talk."

Almost immediately, Hansol slammed his laptop shut and shoved it to the side, swiveling around in his seat so that they were facing each other upfront, "Is this it? You're leaving so you're breaking up with me? We can work this out, a lot of idols have relationships outside their groups-"

"Hansol, what are you going on about?" Chan shook his head, lightly flicking Hansol's forehead to make him calm down, "Who's leaving?"

The Hip Hop Unit member blinked dumbly, his free hand coming up to rub the slightly throbbing spot on his forehead, "We thought... I thought..."

"You thought...?" Chan prompted, leaning down slightly so that he could see Hansol's eyes from under the cap he was wearing.

"No, it doesn't matter anymore." Hansol got out of his chair and tackled the shorter boy to the floor, before the younger could scold him for lightly bumping his head against the side of the desk, Hansol had already silenced all words with a surprise kiss. It wasn't anything deep, but it wasn't as innocent as a peck either, just enough to knock some air out of Chan though.

"...That's cheating." Chan muttered, but a smile stretched across his face.

"Your entire existence is cheating." Hansol countered, he leaned in for another kiss but the younger ducked away, causing his lips to form a pout instead.

Chan rolled his eyes, "That doesn't even make any sense." Sometimes he wondered who the real maknae was in the group. He grinned at his boyfriend's pout, taking his cap off and throwing it to the side before pulling Hansol in again for a proper kiss.

"Whoa, whoa, okay, oh my god, I did not need to see that." Seungcheol waved his hands in front of his face as he entered the work space, making his way towards the laptop on the desk, "Did you guys get your verses done? I'm bringing it up to Jihoon." He asked, all the while shielding his eyes as the two younger members continued their power struggle on the floor.

Hansol mumbled a "Yes" in-between a kiss, causing Chan to let out a low growl of displeasure, hooking a leg around Hansol's waist in an effort to have more of the older's attention.

"Uh, right, you kids play safe now." Seungcheol hurriedly grabbed the laptop and rushed out the door.

_Do locks not mean anything to people?_

* * *

"Whoa, flushed before we've even begun?" Minghao arched an eyebrow at the rest of his unit. After tucking Mingyu in for his afternoon nap, Minghao had sneaked back into the practice room for some extra practice alone, only to find Soonyoung still there, face red, it wasn't hard for Minghao to guess what had happened remembering how he, Junhui, and Chan had practically begged Seokmin to come down and stop Soonyoung from destroying himself. He guessed it kind of worked, since now Soonyoung was just frozen in place. It almost made Minghao want to ask if he got rejected, but that didn't seem possible either.

A little later, Junhui joined them, it was harder to tell due to his darker skin tone, but the older boy was definitely blushing. He didn't explain much aside from the fact that he came down as an excuse to get away from Jihoon. _Get away from him? Usually you can't keep your eyes off him._ Minghao wanted to scoff, but managed to hold himself back at the slightly distressed look on Junhui.

The last one to come was Chan, his eyes were still slightly clouded over from whatever previous activity he was having, face flushed and already sweaty. Minghao didn't feel like guessing what their maknae was doing.

"Well, since we're all here, we should practice?" Minghao suggested, looking around.

Junhui immediately agreed, eager to get a distraction from the earlier occurrence with Jihoon. Chan and Soonyoung weren't as keen, but got into position anyway.

"Speaking of which, I don't love seeing the others worried." Minghao continued as they did warm-ups, "Don't you think we should tell them soon?"

"It'll just make them more worried. I'm sure they'll just stress themselves out worrying about how they can't help us despite knowing our situation." Junhui groaned, reminding himself of Jihoon's outburst in the studio.

"It's better than having them wildly guessing and getting worried over nothing."

"You're calling the truth nothing?"

"Guys, guys, calm down," Soonyoung came between the two Chinese members before a punch could be thrown, "Fighting among ourselves is not going to work."

"It's not my fault that he's a coward who can't confess his obvious feelings towards Jihoon and proceeds to take his frustration out on the rest of us." Minghao refused to let go.

"Don't you bring Woozi into this-" Junhui hissed, trying to break free of Soonyoung's grasp.

"See? He can't even call him by his real name."

Before it could turn into an all-out fight, the dance studio's room was opened, "All right, children, let's all calm down," a stern voice floated over from the doorway, "and I want a full explanation this time." Jeonghan pulled up a chair and sat down in the middle of the room, crossing his arms, motioning for the Performance Unit to gather around in a circle for a family meeting.


	5. Play With Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao and Junhui reevaluate their relationship (while Mingyu and Soonyoung watch uncomfortably); Jihoon won't let Junhui out of his sight; Jeonghan and Seungcheol figure out the shocking truth behind the company's "challenge", leading to Seungcheol attempting to appeal to the "higher-ups" along with Soonyoung, but...?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a pretty dark portrayal of Pledis, and to a certain extent, Jihoon. Read at your own risk- nah, it's not that bad, I'm just trying to scare ya.  
> Also, quite a lot of swearing in comparison to the other chapters here.

"All right," Jeonghan brushed his long hair to the side and tied it into a loose ponytail, watching as the dancers hesitantly pulled up their own chairs to form a circle smack in the middle of the practice room, "There are a lot of things I'd like to ask and sort out, like why Minghao and Junhui were ready to rip each other's throats out just now, why Soonyoung looks like a sunburnt hamster, and- please don't tell me that's a hickey, Chan." Jeonghan let out a long sigh, sliding a hand down over his face in an attempt to clear his mind of dark thoughts before continuing, "But let's start with the oldest and most blatant question, _what exactly is going on with you guys?_ "

The dancers glanced at each other uncomfortably around the circle, exchanging uncertain glances. Junhui, Minghao, and Chan then rested their gazes on Soonyoung, as though telling him it was his decision on how to go forth with this.

Swallowing nervously, Soonyoung was suddenly overly aware of how dry his throat felt as he looked across towards Jeonghan, forming eye contact, "We're getting kicked out."

"You better not be fucking around, Kwon Soonyoung-"

"Why would I joke about something like that?" Soonyoung sighed, rubbing his temple tiredly, "Anyway, the company is running low on funds, they figured they need to cut some people off, unless we can reach this quota by the deadline."

The dancers waited with their breaths held for the vocalist's reaction. Jeonghan was looking at each member in turn, hoping that this was just some sort of elaborate joke they were trying to pull, he wouldn't put it past this particular playful unit. Alas, there was only dead seriousness in their eyes, and dread began to fall upon the angel of the group.

"Please don't tell anyone else." Minghao added, fiddling with his fingers nervously.

"No, I have to tell Seungcheol," Jeonghan watched as looks of alarm flashed across every member of the Performance Unit, "I'm sorry, but out of everyone, I think he deserves to know the most, he is our leader after all," getting up from his seat, Jeonghan went around the circle, rubbing each dancer's shoulder warmly, "Don't worry. We're a team, and even before that, we're family _,_ and we won't let anyone get hurt."

With that, their "mother" exited the room, heading immediately to where Seungcheol possibly was.

Soonyoung collapsed backwards in his seat, "Well, we got that out."

"Yeah, but it still feels like shit." Junhui spat out, storming out of the room.

* * *

Junhui didn't know how long he spent just lying on the rooftop, staring at the starless and moonless sky. It's funny how closely the sky could reflect one's mood, Junhui noted to himself. Just when he was about to drift off to sleep then and there, he heard shuffling as a familiar figure laid down next to him.

"What are you doing here?" Junhui scoffed, his voice barely a croak as he was reminded of the previous event in the practice room.

"Checking on you." Minghao replied, his voice nonchalant, as though he wasn't just trying to smash Junhui's face into the floor a couple moments ago.

Junhui rolled his eyes, rolling over onto his shoulder so that his back was to the younger Chinese male. He heard shuffling behind him and guessed that Minghao had probably moved closer anyway.

"Look, I'm sorry about before," Minghao started, prompting himself up by the elbow, "I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry for lashing out and almost kicking your ass."

Junhui let out another scoff, "Don't worry about it, the only reason why I got mad was because you were right. Plus, don't flatter yourself, I could have kicked your ass."

Minghao let out a chuckle, scooting over closer as Junhui flopped back down onto his back, his face turned to smile at the younger. After a moment of just grinning stupidly at each other, Minghao rolled over onto his back as well, letting out a sigh towards the sky, "I missed this."

"Yeah." Junhui grunted in agreement, his left arm coming up to hook itself around Minghao's right.

The air fell silent again as they listened to each other's breathing, the calmest they've been in each other's presence since the whole Performance-Unit-getting-cut fiasco.

"What happened to us?" Minghao finally asked, his right arm tugging Junhui's closer, "We used to be best friends."

"More like, they made us to be best friends," Junhui corrected, running his hand down to brush the tip of his fingers against Minghao's knuckles, "As the only Chinese members, we related to each other more, and we helped each other out," the older let out a wary smile at their pre-debut memories, "but as time went on, I guess we didn't need each other as much, and you found... better friends." Junhui finally choked out, Mingyu's face appearing in his mind, remembering how the two had gradually grown closer once Minghao was able to have complete conversations with the others without having Junhui translate for him, and well, in turn, the two China line members had less and less interaction as time passed on.

As though reading his mind, Minghao's hand flew up to grab Junhui's in a firm grip, "Ge, Mingyu is not a _better_ friend," to get his point across, the younger had switched to speaking in Mandarin, "and I hope you don't think I have more fun without you or I'm happier with other people. In the first place, I didn't hang out with you because I had no choice, nor was it because I felt obligated as part of China line."

Junhui laughed dryly, watching as their fingers intertwined, "I'm glad Mingyu takes care of you though, as more than just a friend." He added with a teasing tone.

Minghao rolled his eyes, "My point is... no one can replace your role to me, Jun-ge."

"I know..." Junhui sighed, letting their hands fall to the ground, fingers still locked together, "Moving on doesn't mean throwing away."

"WHAT ARE THEY DOING?! WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?! ARE THEY HAVING AN AFFAIR OR NOT, HYUNG, I SWEAR TO GOD-"

"Mingyu... I can't... breath..." Soonyoung choked from the doorway as the younger male shook him vigorously by the shoulders, eyes popping out at the two Chinese members' intimate position.

Breaking apart, Junhui and Minghao made their way to their two eavesdroppers, the younger immediately pulling Mingyu off Soonyoung, assuring him that everything was fine while Soonyoung breathed in large gulps of air hungrily.

"You heard everything?" Junhui asked, rubbing Soonyoung's back as the other slowly recovered.

"Pretty much. I was worried about you two so I followed you guys up, Mingyu tagged along on the way." Soonyoung explained, finally breathing again at a normal pace, "So did you sort everything out?"

Junhui glanced over at Minghao who was now trying to pry off Mingyu's death grip so that they could walk properly down the stairs, "Yeah... I guess we did."

* * *

Junhui sighed, it was a rare day off, and yet the air already felt heavy at breakfast. From the look Seungcheol gave him when he entered the dining room, Jeonghan must had wasted no time in filling him in on their situation yesterday. He half-expected Seungcheol to make an announcement when everyone arrived, but breakfast time passed surprisingly normally with the usual bantering among members, most still trying to shake off sleep.

Once he's cleared his plate, Junhui excused himself from the table, but before he could exit the room completely, he felt a strong grip on his wrist, forcing him to turn around, "Where are you going?" Jihoon asked, eyes wide with panic, his grip on Junhui was starting to feel like it'd leave a bruise.

Trying not to wince from the pain, Junhui gave a smile, "I thought I'd just go back to my room and, well, relax for a change." He felt Jihoon's grip loosen slightly and his shoulders slumped in relief.

"I'm finished here as well, do you want to hang out in my room?" Jihoon asked, already moving towards said location before Junhui could respond, dragging the latter along stubbornly.

Before he even realized it, Jihoon had pretty much shoved Junhui into his room, closing the door behind him. The taller boy looked around, slightly puzzled by the situation. He then began to panic, wondering if Jihoon was planning on continuing their conversation from last time in the studio, "So, um... what do you plan on doing-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence as Jihoon tackled him onto the closest bed, pinning Junhui down onto the mattress, his hand reached behind the pillow, revealing what appears to be a... tie?

"Woozi?" Junhui tried again, but the other's expression was blank as he began to form a knot with the newly bought fabric, and Junhui realized too late that his right wrist had been secured to the bedpost which he could only hope to be Jihoon's.

"As I thought, it's not tight enough..." Jihoon muttered, his nails clawing at the knot, causing a couple of loose threads to slide out.

"It's, um, pretty tight..." Junhui scowled, wondering if Jihoon needed help selecting ties.

"Nothing will ever be tight enough..." Jihoon continued, not listening at all as he ran his hand down Junhui's face, stroking with ghostly light touches, "What do I have to do to bind you to me?" The smaller male whispered, leaning down to nuzzle his cheek in the crook of Junhui's neck, they seemed to have resumed their position in the studio before Seungcheol interrupted, and without the tie, of course.

Junhui allowed the silence to draw out for a couple more minutes as he pondered the situation. Apparently Jihoon was trying to bind him, literally. _Why?_ His free hand came up to ruffle Jihoon's hair in a soothing manner, "You don't have to bind me, I'm not going anywhere," he whispered in the younger's ear in what he hoped to be an assuring tone, "I promise." When the vocalist made no sign of budging, Junhui continued on calmly, "Have I ever broken a promise?"

"In 2012-"

"Since 2013?" Junhui interrupted, tugging Jihoon's head down gently so that his words were muffled by the dancer's shoulder.

Jihoon rolled his eyes and shook his head reluctantly.

"Exactly, so there's nothing to worry about," Junhui declared, pushing himself up to a sitting position with Jihoon still on top, he brought his face close to Jihoon's so that the tips of their noses were rubbing gently against each other, " _Trust me._ "

Jihoon let out a sigh, closing his eyes as Junhui continued to caress and nuzzle against him, showering him with gentle comforting touches. Without thinking, Jihoon leaned in closer, brushing their lips against each other by accident, but he was too absorbed in Junhui's warmth to care or move away as their lips continued to "accidentally" brush over one another. These "accidents" repeated themselves a couple more times until Junhui finally pulled away, his free hand gently tilted Jihoon's chin upwards so that they were looking into each other's eyes.

At a painfully slow pace, Junhui began to draw their faces closer once more, this time there would be no excuse for any "accidents" to happen. Jihoon's heart pounded loudly in his ears as he felt Junhui's warm and now familiar breath against his skin, the gap between them closed, and Jihoon thought it was strange how right it felt with their lips locked together and how empty it felt when it ended.

His mind went fuzzy as he felt something wet and soft trailing the shape of his lips, and looked up to see Junhui's eyes slightly clouded over, having just enough self-control to wait for Jihoon's consent before delving his tongue in eagerly, exploring and claiming the new territory as his.

"It's okay, I'm sure they're just having some man-to-man talk, both of them are far too dense to- SON OF A BISCUIT!" Seungkwan spluttered as he opened the door to the sight of his two closest hyungs having some sort of wrestling match, granted the two had broken apart immediately at the loud interruption but the image was now burned in poor Seungkwan's mind forever.

"O-oh wow..." Seokmin blinked, looking past Seungkwan's frozen figure, his eyes darting from Junhui's bound hand, their entangled legs, and well, to the scene as a whole, "I definitely wasn't expecting to see Jihoon-hyung on top."

"That's not... That's _my_ bed..." Seungkwan groaned, sliding onto the floor, completely drained.

Once things had calmed down with Junhui's hand free and their bodies untangled, Seokmin and Seungkwan sat their two hyungs down eagerly (mostly on Seokmin's part, Seungkwan still seemed like he was fuming).

"We came to check on you two because- oh right, Seungcheol-hyung and Jeonghan-hyung were looking for you, Jun-hyung." Seokmin said, prompting Junhui to stand up and excuse himself, almost too relieved for the lucky break.

Jihoon grabbed onto Junhui once more alarmingly, the dancer leaned down to plant a soft kiss on the vocalist's forehead, "I'll be right back. You know where to find me anyways." He gave Jihoon's hand a reassuring squeeze as the latter reluctantly drew back his hand, allowing Junhui to take his leave.

Jihoon continued to stare after the direction Junhui left in, as though he could still see him through the walls. Seokmin coughed lightly, "So who confessed first?"

"Huh?" Jihoon jumped, for a moment forgetting about the other two in the room.

"I see you and Jun-hyung finally got together." Seokmin's smile began to slip when he saw the growing bewilderment in Jihoon's eyes, "Please tell me somebody confessed."

"We... kind of just went with the flow..." Jihoon admitted sheepishly as Seokmin and Seungkwan made exasperated expressions.

"And was performing bondage on Jun-hyung part of it?" Seungkwan asked, eyeing the piece of fabric that was now thrown into a corner warily, as though he was expecting it to jump up and eat them alive.

"That wasn't... I... don't know." Jihoon finished lamely.

"I didn't know you were into that sort of kink. Did Jun-hyung ask you to tie him up?" Seokmin pressed on, whether it was for his own entertainment or out of actual curiosity, Jihoon wasn't sure. Instead of answering, Jihoon simply buried his face into his hands, praying that a black hole would open up underneath him and save him from this torture.

* * *

 

Seungcheol and Jeonghan were talking in the kitchen with the rest of the Performance Unit when Junhui arrived, his heart sank when he saw the distressed looks on the other members, wondering what else could possibly go wrong today.

"Mind filling me in?" Junhui asked, leaning against the counter tiredly.

Seungcheol glanced at him and moved closer, "You know how the company insists that you guys need to reach the quota on your own?" Junhui nodded, not sure where the conversation was going, "Well, don't you think it's odd? If they don't have enough funds to care for a group, it'd make more sense for the group to raise money as a whole. Why are they picking on you guys specifically?"

"Well... since we'd be off having separate events, the company would be receiving both payment from your events and ours- no, wait, they said only the money the Performance Unit earns will be counted..." A scowl began to form on Junhui's face.

"Exactly. Besides, the only time we're actually going to be having this event 'juggle' is on the final day, yes? The music show?"

"Right."

"So technically it'd be the same if they just had the whole group put on extra shows or events, like what you guys have been doing while the rest of us have been basically lazing around. When you guys have free time, the rest of us are at an interview, there's been hardly any overlap." Jeonghan added, coming over to help Seungcheol explain, "Not to mention all of these extra events with new partners are definitely costing a lot more money, yet just yesterday I overheard the manager talking to Jihoon about getting new equipment for the studio soon, you'd think they'd be more on a budget with a claim like this."

Junhui licked his lips nervously, a slight tremble in his voice, "So... what are you implying?"

"The company doesn't plan on keeping you in the group from the start," Seungcheol declared, his tone grave, "It's probably something like this- If your show ends unsuccessfully, you get kicked out as promised, but if your show ends successfully, they are probably planning on splitting you from SEVENTEEN as an entirely different group, you will no longer just be a 'unit'."

Junhui just stared at Seungcheol blankly, looking towards the other members, hoping that they were just pulling some prank. When nobody responded, he broke into a dry laugh, "T-that doesn't make any sense... in the first place, if they valued us so much that they'd want us to form a group ourselves, they wouldn't want to kick us out."

"That's why they're giving you guys all these extra lessons and promotions, they're sure that it won't fail."

"Which means..."

"What's the point? Either way, they don't plan on letting us return to SEVENTEEN after the show!" Chan blurted out, his eyes red, looking close to tears, "If that's the case, I'd rather have the show fail."

"Hey, now..." Jeonghan walked over to comfort the maknae, "An idol should never let down their fans, no matter what the reason is. Also, even if they split you guys off, there is still a chance for us to meet as long as we remain in the same industry."

"But it won't be the same..." Minghao's voice wobbled as Jeonghan put an arm around the two youngest members in the room.

"I can't leave." Soonyoung finally spoke, his expression serious, the usual playful joker demeanor completely gone, " _We_ can't leave."

Junhui nodded in agreement, remembering how desperate Jihoon looked when he was just leaving the room, he didn't want to imagine how he would react if Junhui broke the one promise he asked Jihoon to trust him with.

Seungcheol only looked at them silently, deep in thought until Hansol broke into the circle, running over to Chan immediately, "Who made Chan cry? I won't hold back even if it's you, Seungcheol-hyung!" The younger boy exclaimed, wrapping his arms protectively around his precious lover.

Seungcheol shook his head, having not gotten over the frightening scene from yesterday. He walked over to Soonyoung, patting the Performance Unit leader's back gently, "Let's go talk to the manager, the company owes you an explanation."

* * *

Seokmin returned to his room after Jihoon's finally had enough of his and Seungkwan's teasing, throwing both of them out, ignoring the fact that it was also Seungkwan's room. Naturally, he was surprised to see Soonyoung in there, his head hanging low as he leaned forward from Seokmin's bed.

"Soon? What's wrong?" Seokmin glided over to his side immediately, but Soonyoung was quicker. The latter reached up and pulled the lead vocalist down in a bone-crushing hug, using so much force that Seokmin thought he was definitely going to lose a rib. Nonetheless, Seokmin still reached up to stroke Soonyoung's disheveled blue locks.

"I'm sorry..." was the only thing Soonyoung mumbled out as he pulled Seokmin closer, "I'm sorry..."

_"Either you keep the Performance Unit, or we're all leaving. We're a team, if one of us leaves, we'll all leave, together." Seungcheol had declared to the manager, who was helping them communicate to the CEO through his cellphone, "When you gave us those rings, the contract was already set. The thirteen of us will be together forever."_

_"Another company has offered to buy the Performance Unit, we are no longer in charge of them."_

_"What?!" Soonyoung and Seungcheol both exclaimed._

_"They're only still allowed to continue activities as SEVENTEEN until the deadline given, then they will have to pack their bags and move-"_

_"With all due respect, my argument still stands." Seungcheol pressed on desperately, "if they can't stay, we'll all resign."_

_"You think cancelling a contract is that easy? Lawsuits will have to be made. While I'm sure you boys are willing to throw everything on the line for each other, this doesn't just concern you, your families will also be involved."_

It was hopeless, and Soonyoung was almost at his limit. _What should I do...?_ He looked up helplessly at Seokmin, who only looked back with equal worry. Suddenly, almost entirely on impulse, Soonyoung blurted out, "Let's get married!"

"W-what?" Seokmin blinked, shocked by the sudden change in Soonyoung's tone.

"It's perfect. If we're married, they will have to let us be together. I can't save everyone else, but at least they won't be able to separate _you_ from me-" Soonyoung continued to ramble on, sliding his hands down under Seokmin's and gripping them tightly against each other, "Will you marry me?!"

"Okay, that's enough." Junhui threw a book at Soonyoung, causing the latter to let go of Seokmin's hands before he could even give a response.

"Rude." Soonyoung grumbled, rubbing the back of his head where the book had landed its blow.

"Yes, rude, I was reading that." Wonwoo muttered from somewhere behind Junhui.

"What do you guys want?"

"Just worried about our roommate, and rightfully so." Junhui shrugged, walking in with Wonwoo, they each grabbed an arm and hauled Soonyoung out of the room, leaving Seokmin still very much confused and dumbfounded.

"Were you seriously going to propose to him under those circumstances? I swear, there is not a single romantic bone in your body." Junhui hissed as they made their way down the hall, Wonwoo had turned back to retrieve his book.

Soonyoung sighed, "I guess you're right... I gave in to desperation..."

"We'll figure this out." Junhui promised.  _We_ have _to figure this out._ "Anyway, you better think of an excuse for Seokmin tomorrow."

"What are the chances of a meteor hitting Earth sometime between today and tomorrow so that all our problems can be magically abolished?"

"Along with ourselves."

"Best case scenario." Soonyoung shrugged.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, Jihoon's the "dom"-- //shot  
> Anyway, yeah... this chapter was a mess, sorry.


	6. The Distance Between Me and You Has No Progress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time-skip to the day of the deadline...  
> Cliche shit ahead, proceed at your own risk.

Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months, and finally... it was the date they had all dreaded, the Performance Unit's solo stage.

Junhui didn't know how they did it, but they managed to keep the whole thing a secret until now. He knew that it was largely thanks to Seungcheol and Jeonghan covering up for them for the most part, however.

He sighed as they did their last round of mic checks, this was it. Before this, he had spent every waking moment possible with Jihoon, and when he had to slip out for practice, he would always get Jihoon something as a substitute, like a stuffed animal or a key chain, which Jihoon would pretend to not want but line them up securely at the side of his bed or along his desk so that they'd be the first thing he sees every morning.

"All right, Performance Unit. We either go big or go home." Soonyoung said solemnly as they did their signature pep-talk circle position, except this time with only four people.

" _Literally._ " Minghao added under his breath.

* * *

Meanwhile, the rest of SEVENTEEN gathered backstage, some warming up their vocals, and others stretching on the floor, anticipating for their turn on the stage. Seungcheol glanced at Jeonghan and nodded, a look of understanding shared between the two oldest members. The leader turned to the scattered members, "All right, guys, this is it, gather 'round."

There was a flurry of noises as the members pumped themselves up, running and forming a circle around their parent figures. Somehow, the circle seemed smaller than usual... "The Performance Unit still aren't here yet?" Seungkwan asked, counting off the gathered members.

Seungcheol sighed heavily, "They will not be performing with us today."

" _What_?"

An explosion of noises exploded, but this was all expected.

"You knew and you didn't tell us?"

"Let's all calm down and focus on the performance-"

"There is no performance without the Performance Unit!"

Seungcheol let out another sigh, waiting for the noise to finally quiet down, but only due to the staff's hushing, "I know we all have mixed feelings right now, but they didn't want us to worry. Let's put ourselves in their shoes for a while."

The members listened intently as their leader, with the aid of Jeonghan, explained the whole story, all the while reminding them that the Performance Unit always kept their feelings in mind, which was why they asked for their situation to remain a secret.

By the time it had ended, it was already their turn. The group filed into the preparation space with heavy hearts, the majority of them still unsure of how to react. Seungcheol glanced over at Seokmin, Mingyu, Hansol, and Jihoon in particular, trying to read their expressions.

There was worry in Seokmin's eyes, but his expression looked determined as they faced the stage.

Mingyu's eyes darted back towards the waiting room, probably thinking about whether he still had time to call Minghao or not.

Hansol's face was relaxed, but the way his hands shook slightly as they finally left for the stage didn't escape Seungcheol's gaze.

As for Jihoon... he seemed indifferent.

The group got into position for the live stage, and Seungcheol could still feel the heaviness hanging in the air, but he knew they had to put up a good show for the Performance Unit as well. Still, the stage seemed abnormally empty without them.

To his surprise, the first couple of numbers passed by smoothly, and Seungcheol was starting to think they were going to get through the entire showcase with no problem until they got to Jihoon's solo stage.

He watched in shock as Jihoon missed his starting note, the vocalist leader just stood in the center of the stage, seemingly zoned out. The music stopped abruptly as the staff sensed something odd, words of worry buzzed from the audience as well.

Just when Seungcheol was about to go up and bring Jihoon down, afraid that he's finally having a meltdown, the small figure drew in a shaky breath as he spoke into the mic, "Today is a very important day for someone close to me."

The buzzing instantly quieted down, and Seungcheol could feel the other members hold their breaths along with him.

"That person has always been trying their best to be positive, even when the situation seemed hopeless. They always tried to make those around them smile, even when they had problems of their own. That's why... they've always kept their worries a secret from everyone else, shouldered them on their own." His grip around the microphone tightened as he took another deep breath, "Just like right now. They are standing on their own stage, fighting all by themselves, but we can't be there for them..." Jihoon felt his voice crack, "Even though they were always there for us."

Seungcheol was frozen in his spot, his eyes grew wide as he realized tears were beginning to slide down Jihoon's cheeks, it felt like a flashback to when they had their first win, except this time, the tears weren't due to happiness.

"So I'm begging you... please let me go to them," Jihoon choked out in-between light sobbing, bowing his head down towards the audience, "I know this is very unprofessional of me... but I don't want to take their existence for granted ever again. I'm begging you... Please..."

Seungcheol felt movement next to him, and before he could react, Mingyu and Hansol had walked on stage, standing on either side of Jihoon, matching his bow with their hands on his back, rubbing gently.

"Please let us go." The two said in unison.

Seokmin followed a little afterwards, looking at the crowd earnestly, "Thank you all for coming today to support us, but I'm afraid there is someone else that needs all of our support more right now." With that, he too, bowed deeply.

"There are supposed to be thirteen people on SEVENTEEN's stage, and without a full cast, we cannot call ourselves SEVENTEEN, nor do we have the right to claim this stage," Seungcheol announced, coming on stage himself, glancing sideways at Jihoon reassuringly, "Please let us retrieve the rest of our members so that we can return, and properly perform as SEVENTEEN." A bow.

One-by-one, the rest of the group began to flood back onto the stage, forming a line and bowing to the audience, _"Please."_

Cries of sympathy and encouragement came from the audience, which soon gathered and became one single chant, "Go!"

Jihoon watched in amazement as the light-sticks swayed in complete unison, the chant growing so loud that he felt the ground shake. Wiping his tears with the back of his hand, Jihoon bowed along with the group, "Thank you!" His voice had never been in worse condition, but he felt that it was the least of his worries now.

The group immediately jumped off stage and scurried out of the venue as some staff members tried to stop them while others threw encouraging words at them as they successfully broke free from the crowd, running as fast as they could to where the Performance Unit was with Seungcheol and Jeonghan as their guides.

* * *

"This will be our last song, thank you all for coming today!" Soonyoung called, surprised by the amount of people who came. _But it isn't nearly enough._ He thought to himself bitterly, but grinned brightly anyway. It was important that they showed the best side of themselves even at the very end.

"We covered this song with honest feelings, and we hope it will reach your hearts!" Chan added, sending out a heart cutely.

"Without further ado, let us present to you, _20_!" Junhui announced just as the music started.

Junhui closed his eyes for the first few beats, his own heartbeat had not slowed down at all since even before the performance began, as he opened his eyes, he thought he saw some movement in the back. _Late arrivals? This is a little_ too _late isn't it?_ Junhui laughed to himself, but then grew more puzzled as he squinted, _Now_ that _is_ way _too many late arrivals._ He watched as one, two, three... _nine_ shadows filed into the back row.

The lights briefly circled into the audience, and in the split second they crossed over to the back, Junhui made out the familiar figures of their group members, their costumes were hard to miss.

Countless different emotions flooded all at once into his mind, but his first reaction was to smile widely up at the now extremely crowded back corner, _"I wanna be your morning, baby, from now on, be alright!"_

Seungkwan let out a whistle as they watched the Performance Unit present their cover of 20, "I was not expecting him to be able to reach the high notes."

Seokmin nodded in agreement as he looked down proudly at whom they've always known as their dancers, completely slaying it on stage with not just their stage presence, but with their vocal skills as well.

"You know... I kind of get where the company is coming from," Jihoon muttered softly to Seungcheol, "they all have such amazing talent, and yet they have to give up on showing it off because of their unit's position. But here... they don't have to hold back."

Seungcheol didn't respond as he watched Junhui's reflection locked dead center in Jihoon's eyes, the latter completely mesmerized by the dancer's glow on stage. "You know what I believe? I think they're shining because they want to show their best to the ones they love. The fans, their families... and you, in Jun's case."

Jihoon snorted, but didn't bother to come up with a retort. He just wanted to focus on enjoying the performance, and you can bet that he was one of the loudest screamers by the time the song ended.

* * *

Immediately following the end of the show, a brief fanmeet was made for the Performance Unit, the dancers viewed it as some sort of goodbye to their fans, at least it would be the last time they meet them as members of SEVENTEEN. It may seem cliche, but thanks to the last-minute tickets bought by the nine late arrivals, they just managed to reach the company's given quota. On the bright side, their career wasn't over, but on the down side, they still had to say goodbye.

They were all too surprised to see the other nine members in the line-up, each coming up to shake their hands, high-five them, exchange a couple of words, and congratulate them on a job well done.

Seungcheol was the first to greet Chan, taking his hand in a firm grip, "You've grown."

"But you will still forever be the baby." Jeonghan added from the side, nudging Seungcheol away so that he could give his claimed baby a hug, "Call home often. Remember that this will always be your home, and you're always welcome to return to it." The older male muttered, unwilling to let go of their precious maknae.

Chan nodded, only managing to pat Jeonghan's back weakly, his mouth already trembling and his tears were dangerously close to falling.

Jisoo placed a hand on Jeonghan's shoulder comfortingly, his other hand coming around to give Chan a tight hug as well before pushing Jeonghan along so that they didn't clog up the line more than they already had.

Wonwoo, Jihoon, Seokmin, and Mingyu had followed suit, murmuring words of congratulations and (in Wonwoo, Seokmin, and Mingyu's cases) awarded Chan with bone-crushing hugs.

Seungkwan was far more emotional, before Chan could cry, Seungkwan's tears were already overflowing as he clutched onto the younger's shoulders, "But he's still a baby!"

"Seungkwan, the other hyungs will be with him."

"WHY ARE THEY STEALING OUR BABY?! KIDNAPPERS!" Seungkwan continued to scream as the '97 liners came back to drag him away.

Chan had to take a second to figure out whether to laugh or cry at Seungkwan's reaction, but before he could come to a conclusion, he found himself face-to-face with the one person he didn't think he'd have to be in this situation with.

"I know I've said this countless times already, but you're amazing." Hansol showed his usual lop-sided smile, his hands tucked in his pockets.

Chan returned a smile in kind, "I would kill to hear it a couple more times though..."

"Till the end of our lives and even beyond." Hansol promised, flashing his usual cheesiness around Chan.

"I said only _a couple_ more." Chan joked, reaching over to give Hansol a hug, but the latter flinched away.

 "Don't... I won't be able to let you go." Hansol murmured, but leaned over to give a soft peck on the younger's cheek.

Chan watched as Hansol proceeded down the line, not turning back even once.

_So don't let me go..._

* * *

Having survived Seungcheol's, Jeonghan's, and Jisoo's "hyung-talks", Minghao braced himself for another "Don't do drugs, don't go with strangers, don't get lost on tours" talk from Wonwoo, but the '96 liner simply offered him a hand, smiling slightly, "Take care of Jun."

"You're always welcome to stop by and babysit." Minghao had joked lightheartedly, returning the smile and handshake.

"Yeah, make sure he stays out of trouble." Jihoon added onto Wonwoo's words, giving him a congratulating handshake and squeeze on the shoulder, "Like... pull him back when he tries to wander off screen during V-apps and other live broadcasts."

"I think that would be harder for him to do now that he only has three others to compete with." Minghao grinned.

Seokmin had pulled Minghao in for a generously big hug, "Call me every week, no, every fucking day." He only let the latter go after making him promise that.

Seungkwan and Vernon each gave Minghao a warm hug, wishing him the best of luck in the near future.

Finally, it was Mingyu's turn, "How am I going to sleep without you?" He immediately whined, holding onto both of Minghao's hands tightly.

"I'll call you every night, how's that?" Minghao kept his smile on, even though he's already died countless times inside just thinking about the possibility of him separating from Mingyu, and now it was finally coming true.

"It won't be the same... do you think you'll be able to sneak over at night?" Mingyu's eyes shined hopefully.

"I'll... see what I can do?" Minghao laughed, giving Mingyu's hands a tight squeeze.

 Mingyu nodded happily, his hands slowly slipping out of Minghao's as he continued along the line.

* * *

"I never knew this day would come, we made such a great team." Seungcheol had said, gripping Soonyong's hands tightly in his, "And now you're going off with your own, huh?"

"Yup, and you bet it'll be even better!" Soonyoung boasted, but Seungcheol could hear the slight crack in his voice.

Seungcheol pulled his choreographer in for a tight hug, "I _know_ it will."

Jeonghan came up to pinch Soonyoung's round cheeks, rolling them around against his palms playfully, "Never change, SEVENTEEN's 10:10."

Jisoo followed afterwards, grinning widely at Soonyoung, "Yo, Hosh."

"Yo, Josh." Soonyoung returned.

The two continued to grin in a moronic way at each other, no words needed to be exchanged for them to understand each other. That was how it's always been.

Wonwoo gave a firm handshake, murmuring words of encouragement, "They're going to be tough to handle, are you sure you're ready to be a father?"

"Don't worry about nothing~" Soonyoung replied confidently.

Jihoon's lips were pressed into a hard line, and if Soonyoung didn't know better, he would have teased, "Aw, Jihoonie, are you about to cry since you're going to miss me sooo much~?" And Soonyoung didn't know better, so that was exactly what he did.

To his surprise, instead of swinging his fist or rolling his eyes at Soonyoung like he usually did, Jihoon only muttered with a broken voice, "Of course, idiot, you're my fucking best friend," Jihoon's voice shook as he reached up and hugged the taller male, "and the best partner anyone could ever ask for."

Mingyu had to pry Jihoon off Soonyoung before the security guard could, he quickly pushed the older member along but not before bringing Soonyoung in a bone-crushing hug himself.

Soonyoung hadn't noticed that tears were already flowing out of his eyes as Seungkwan entered his vision, "You have to cry prettily!" The younger insisted in-between sobs.

"Speak for yourself!"

The rest of their conversation was pretty much made out of blubbering noises as neither could form proper words, both reduced to sobbing messes.

Hansol pushed Seungkwan gently along, massaging his shoulders in a comforting manner. He only gave Soonyoung a high-five, but the latter felt that he would never forget the sting it left afterwards.

Seokmin approached him, smiling brightly as per usual, "What are we going to do now?"

"What do you want to do?" Soonyoung replied, attempting to clean himself up from his crying match with Seungkwan.

"Well, I recall you talking about marriage at one point." Seokmin teased, taking Soonyoung's hands in his and drawing them close to his chest, "Let's talk more about that after things have settled for both of us."

Soonyoung nodded so hard he thought his head was going to roll off.

* * *

"So the prince is finally resigning." Seungcheol joked, patting Junhui on the back with a little too much force than he had intended, causing the other to wobble slightly.

"You wish. Once a prince, always a prince." Junhui responded with his usual confidence, returning Seungcheol's pat with less force.

"I'm sure. Invite us to your kingdom one day."

"Often, you mean."

Jeonghan hugged Junhui affectionately, "You're sure you're going to be okay without me as your translator?"

"Come on, you know how much I've improved." Junhui laughed, returning the hug, "I am going to miss your constant nagging though." Jeonghan rolled is eyes at this, but ruffled Junhui's hair affectionately.

Jisoo smiled encouragingly at Junhui, hooking his arm around him for a quick hug, "I'll call you up to teach me Cantonese if we ever go to Hong Kong again."

"I'll be waiting." Junhui replied, giving his hyung a reassuring shoulder squeeze.

Wonwoo was the next in line, he was never a man of words, but Junhui honestly didn't expect him to be so blunt, "I'm going to miss you." After a long pause where Junhui wasn't quite sure how to react, the younger male added, "You ass."

"That's more like it." Junhui joked, pulling Wonwoo in for the tightest hug he could muster without breaking the other's rib cage, "And I'm going to miss you a hundred times more, asshole."

Seokmin treated Junhui to his usual bright smile that would liven up anyone's spirit, then gave him an equally warm hug before moving along.

Mingyu gave Junhui a bear hug as expected, muttering in a sulking tone, "Please don't steal Minghao away from me."

"Really, Mingyu?" Junhui chuckled, but returned the hug, assuring him that he wouldn't dare.

"The dorm is going to be so quiet without you." Seungkwan pouted, tears still flowing.

"You'll make sure that doesn't happen, right?" Junhui smiled, brushing the younger's tears away gently. Seungkwan sniffled, but nodded.

Hansol first extended a hand for Junhui to shake, but then changed his mind and hugged the older instead, "You were the best, hyung."

"Still am." Junhui replied, ruffling his favorite dongsaeng's hair as the latter gradually but unwillingly pulled away. 

Junhui's smile slipped slightly when Jihoon came up, staring up at him with clear but reddened eyes, "Woozi-"

"Jihoon." Junhui blinked, wondering why Jihoon was referring to himself in third person. The shorter male rolled his eyes, " _Jihoon._ I want you to call me by my real name at least once."

Junhui swallowed a lump in his throat as he held Jihoon's face close to his, "I'll say it as many times as you want, Jihoon."

The two were eventually pulled apart by the other members, all reluctantly, of course. The rest of the members eventually had to step off the stage to make more space for the other people in line.

* * *

The Performance Unit gathered at the front door with all their belongs packed, taking one last look around the dorm they had practically grown up in, the practice room they both dreaded and loved, and the living room that seemed so quiet now compared to its usually rowdy atmosphere with the members all trying to squeeze themselves into the few sofas they had.

Finally, it was time.

Soonyoung pushed open the door, his eyes grew wide as the rest of the members lined up in front of their van.

"What's all this?"

Seungcheol took in a deep breath, then yelled out in his leader voice, "One last time, Say the name!"

"SEVENTEEN, thank you very much!"

The nine members bowed at the same time as the Performance Unit members gaped in shock, hurriedly trying to put the members back upright, stating that it was embarrassing, and they didn't do anything to deserve such formal treatment.

"Nope, you've done more than deserved it. We are the ones who don't deserve you." Seungcheol explained as the members parted to let them in the van.

"Don't say that..." Soonyoung swallowed, feeling the tears coming back.

"But we will become a group that you'll all be proud to return to one day. So let's all try our best to work for that day." Jihoon stated, coming up next to Seungcheol.

The Performance Unit members only nodded dumbly, unable to form words as they each got in the van, watching as the vehicle drove away from the group. They didn't stop looking back towards their old members until they could no longer be seen.

"Those idiots. We're the ones who will become a group they will be proud to welcome back." Soonyoung hissed, tears dripping down once more. The other three reached over to comfort him, nodding in agreement.

_That's right, this isn't the end. We will definitely come back, no matter how long it takes._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BUT WAIT, there's more???


	7. What Do I Do?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As soon as the Performance Unit's van was out of sight, Jeonghan begins plotting on how to retrieve their four "lost" members; meanwhile Jisoo attempts to chase after the van (by forcing Mingyu to drive one of their own) upon hearing that neither Jihoon nor Junhui had actually confessed despite their seemingly intimate relationship; and what else... well, Chan and Hansol cuddle, but that's nothing new.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back to being weird, whoo.  
> Warning: Mentioned/implied sex

The rest of the group (or what was left of the group) watched as the van eventually disappeared out of sight, all the while waving and yelling out blessings.

Once he was sure that the vehicle was well out of eyesight, Jeonghan turned to his fellow members, clapping his hands together, "All right, into the living room."

"Huh? It's getting late, they should get to bed." Seungcheol blinked, slightly shocked by how quickly Jeonghan's recovered, considering that they were literally just bidding farewell to four friends that were as close as family to them.

"Seungcheol, Seungcheol," Jeonghan laughed, shaking his head as he placed a hand on their leader's shoulder, looking at him with sympathetic eyes, "did you honestly think I was actually going to let them take my babies away?"

"Please tell me you're not thinking of anything crazy." Seungcheol sighed, but knew that it was useless, there was no stopping Jeonghan once he gets going.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head about nothing." Jeonghan winked, ushering the others inside the building.

As Jihoon shuffled after the others slowly, he glanced down at the baby fox toy Junhui had given him, it was the last gift he received from the dancer. Stroking its fur gently, Jihoon felt captivated by how similar some if its features were to a certain somebody, like the little pout its mouth formed, the sly little glint in its eyes, and the way its nose curved at an angle forming a perfect side-profile. Huh, maybe he was just missing him too much.

"You really loved him, huh?" As though reading his mind, Jisoo came up behind him, holding him around the shoulders comfortingly.

"Jun is certainly... special. Yeah, actually, you're right," Jihoon admitted sheepishly, feeling his cheeks turn hot, "I really love him. It's too bad I never got tell him though."

The smile on Jisoo's face slipped, "What do you mean you never got to tell him? You two are dating, right?"

"Well, yeah, but we never really... you know, talked about our feelings."

Jihoon cringed as he noticed Jisoo's face fall into a darker expression, the latter's arm had slid down from Jihoon's shoulders and he felt Jisoo's hand gripping his wrist tightly.

"Blasphemy."

Before Jihoon could react, Jisoo had already began storming towards the garage, grabbing Mingyu from out of the crowd along the way.

"Whoa, hyung, what are you doing?!" Mingyu wailed, wincing as Jisoo's nails dug into his arm.

"We are chasing after them in our own van." The oldest of the three replied, taking the keys from a rack on the side and throwing Jihoon in the backseat before the vocalist leader could even think about escaping. He then shoved Mingyu into the driver's seat, himself seated in the passenger seat, "All right, Mingyu, full speed ahead!"

"Hoooold up just a second!" Mingyu's began to panic as Jisoo turned on the engine, "Why am I driving?"

"'Cause you're the only one with a driver's license."

"You're the oldest here!"

"Yeah, well, I got mine in the States and I haven't had the chance to get an international one." Jisoo shrugged, patting Mingyu on the shoulder, "But don't worry, I have confidence in your skills."

"I'd rather you not."

"We'll get to see Minghao again-"

"Hold on tight!"

With that, the three in the Pledis van zoomed off in the direction where the Performance Unit's vehicle disappeared. Jihoon's heart pounded as his grip around the baby fox toy tightened. It was obvious that Jisoo meant business, which meant he expected him to pour his heart out to Junhui when and if they actually catch up. What was he supposed to say? Maybe he should try rehearsing while he still had the chance... If only this was as easy as writing lyrics.

_"You know, for a guy who claims to have never been in a relationship, you sure write some good love songs." Junhui had commented one time while watching Jihoon "in action"._

_"Well... just because I haven't been in a relationship it doesn't mean I've never been in love." Jihoon replied, his eyes glued to the screen._

_"I'm sure." Junhui had hummed, massaging his shoulders gently from behind, "So... are you in love now?"_

_"...Maybe."_

Jihoon groaned, slamming his forehead into the back of the seat in front of him. There were so many opportunities to tell him, but no, he had to be a prick and "play it cool". No wonder people called him a fairy instead of a man.

* * *

"Well... this is actually not that different!" Soonyoung had commented once they've been shown to their dorm. Their new company had informed them that they'd have a week to adjust to their new environment, so before then, they were free to roam by themselves within the given space.

"Yeah, it's a little weird to only have two people in one room though..." Minghao looked around the bedroom doubtfully. The size itself wasn't all that bigger than what they had at their old dorm, but since it was only housing two members, there seemed to be a lot of excessive room.

"I know it doesn't seem like home now, but there's a start to everything, right?" Junhui stated, patting Minghao on the shoulder as he peeked into the room.

"You're right when you're right, I suppose." The younger shrugged, laying his baggage down on the floor.

 Chan walked over to the window, wondering what sort of view they would have to get used to waking up to, "...Punch me if I'm wrong, but is that Mingyu-hyung driving a van?"

"What?" Minghao immediately hopped over to his side, peering out the curtains, "That can't be... but it can't be anyone else. Oh god, he knocked over the neighbor's garbage can." The former b-boy immediately ran down to claim his seemingly lost puppy before any other harm could be caused to their surroundings. Wouldn't want their reputation to be damaged before they've even had the chance to introduce themselves.

"I can't believe he managed to follow us here, maybe Mingyu really does have the senses of a dog." Junhui joked, following after Minghao at a slower pace, worried that he'd walk in on an intimate "couple reunion". He wouldn't put it past Mingyu even though they literally just left minutes ago.

As he descended the stairs carefully, making sure that the view was clear, Junhui's eyes nearly bulged out at the sight of a familiar figure following after Mingyu onto their porch.

"Whoa, Jihoon, you're here, too?" Soonyoung beat him to the punch as the dance leader walked over to meet their guests.

"Uh, yeah..." Jihoon blinked at a fast pace, trying to focus his gaze on Soonyoung's instead of Junhui's, who was standing just behind the other, "It's kind of a long story..."

"Not really, we came down here to make sure you two don't leave any regrets." Jisoo declared, coming down to push Jihoon closer towards Junhui.

"Regrets?" Junhui looked down at Jihoon, his arms automatically wrapping themselves around the shorter boy in a protective manner, holding him close.

"Erm, well... Jisoo-hyung was being extremely insistent on it..." Jihoon flubbed, mentally slapping himself. Why couldn't he just say it honestly instead of making up excuses? Sighing to steady himself, Jihoon looked up at Junhui, his right hand gliding itself over Junhui's, nuzzling his cheek into his palm gently, "I don't want you to feel unappreciated ever again..."

"I've never felt unappreciated." Junhui soothed, running his fingers through Jihoon's hair, smoothing the light colored locks out.

"I just wanted to make things clear." Jihoon breathed out heavily, touching his lips to Junhui's fingers as he gripped the latter's right hand tightly between his own, " _I love you._ "

Junhui blinked.

"You're the one I'm in love with."

Junhui blinked again as Soonyoung's mouth dropped.

"How should I put it... I'm infatuated with you."

"Stop, stop!" Junhui covered the vocalist's mouth with his free hand, his face flushed into a deep red, "That was... unexpected." A shy smile crept onto the taller boy's face as he leaned down to meet Jihoon at eye-level, "I know... Even if you don't say it, I can feel it. You don't have to force yourself to say it, I know you're not the most comfortable with cheesy things." Junhui laughed, "I can be cheesy enough for the both of us."

"No kidding..." Jihoon looked up at him with a tired smile, relief clearly showing in his eyes, however.

"I love you, too, you know." Junhui whispered, his turn to take Jihoon's hand in his own, kissing his fingertips softly.

Jihoon closed his eyes, the moment those three simple words fell out of Junhui's mouth, Jihoon felt himself getting swept off his feet, but of course he wouldn't admit it, not when Jisoo was standing behind him with the smuggest look he's ever seen on anyone.

"Got it. Can we go back now?" Jihoon turned to Jisoo stiffly, not failing to hear the amused laugh erupting from Soonyoung.

"Really? Jun poured his heart out to you and that's how you reward him?" Jisoo teased, feigning hurt.

"Then I'm leaving without you." Jihoon walked towards the van, ripping Mingyu away from Minghao along the way.

"Hyung!" Mingyu whined, wondering why it always had to happen to him.

As he settled in the backseat, Jihoon put his arms safely around the baby fox, treating it as though it was a living creature.

"Ah, hey, you brought that along." Junhui grinned, looking in through the window.

"You did say to think of it as you, so..." Jihoon bit the inside of his cheek. _Stop sounding so ungrateful, geez._ "I mean..."

"I know what you mean." Junhui smiled, tracing a heart into the glass, topping it off with a cheesy wink.

Jisoo returned to the van as well, waiting patiently as Minghao finished his lecture to Mingyu about traffic safety before giving him the order to drive them back to their dorm.

Minghao sighed, watching as the van pulled out of their driveway and zoomed off down the road, not before toppling over a couple other garbage cans along the block, "We were fools to have thought they'd be that easy to shake off."

"Yeah." Junhui chuckled.

"Speak for yourselves, I knew they'd come throu-"

"Not now, Soonyoung."

* * *

Chan watched from the windows at his hyungs interactions. It was nice that they were able to meet each other again so soon, maybe a little too soon. Still, it was nice, and he wished he could have gone down as well, but at the same time, he'd feel like he was interrupting something.

As the hyungs returned, they decided to go out and see what sort of places they could go to for meals in the new neighborhood, splitting into two groups for the "expedition. After getting dinner, they gathered back at the new dorm again. The whole tour seemed oddly quiet, even when they were all trying to speak at the same time. It just wasn't the same.

Chan excused himself early, wanting to get most of his unpacking done by tomorrow. As he entered the room, he was shocked to see a certain grinning boy standing near the window.

"Please don't tell me you climbed in." Was the first thing Chan said while practically leaping into the awaiting arms of Hansol.

"Nah, don't worry. Mingyu-hyung told me the address, Jun-hyung and Minghao-hyung let me in earlier before you and Soonyoung-hyung arrived." Hansol explained, sitting back onto the desk and lifting Chan up onto his lap. Wrapping his legs around the older's waist to pull their bodies even closer, Chan leaned his head against Hansol's neck as the latter tucked him even closer, "Told you I wouldn't be able to let you go."

Chan rolled his eyes, "You're going to eventually."

"Nonsense. You know what, I'll come visit you like this everyday."

"Don't, you'll tire yourself out." Chan laughed, locking their fingers together firmly.

"It's honestly not that far. I'll always find you, as long as we're in the same country- no, as long as we're on the same planet."

"And I thought you couldn't get any cheesier." Chan sighed, leaning up to kiss his boyfriend under the chin, "But, um... I wouldn't mind you staying over just for tonight. If that's okay with your schedule, do you guys have anything tomorrow morning?"

Hansol shook his head, more than happy to comply as he trailed sloppy kisses along Chan's neck.

* * *

"...So." Junhui began, breaking the silence at breakfast time as the Performance Unit plus Hansol gathered at the table. "...Anything new with you guys?"

"Yes, I learned that the soundproof system here isn't all that great." Minghao stated, causing Hansol to choke on his glass of water.

"I've underestimated the sex drive of young ones." Soonyoung sighed wistfully, swirling his spoon around in the cereal absentmindedly.

"I'm moving out." Chan muttered, hitting his head on the table.

"Aw, but we just got here!" Soonyoung whined, patting Chan on the head, "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll be able to ask for thicker walls or something when the manager returns."

"Or just don't do it here." Minghao murmured tiredly with bags under his eyes.

 

 


	8. I Used to Be a Cold Guy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeonghan continued his diabolical (or not) plan to make Pledis take the Performance Unit back, which involves having the Performance Unit going on "double double dates". While Soonyoung and Seokmin are completely on board, Minghao and Mingyu are just happy to spend more time with each other, Chan and Hansol are... well, Chan and Hansol, Junhui is worried about Jihoon's infamous dislike towards PDA that was clearly showing on their date.

"Hey, guys, sorry for leaving all of a sudden, we were- what are you guy doing?" Jisoo blinked upon entering the living room, the two younger members following behind him also looking stumped at the sight of the other members.

The six members were basically splayed out in different corners of the living, all looked as though they were ready to look death in the face by tomorrow, dark eye circles and everything. Jisoo swore that he could see their souls literally floating out of their mouths, threatening to leave the world of the living at any second.

"Showing the company how sad, depressed, and incomplete we are without the Performance Unit." Jeonghan explained from his place on the sofa, his eyes empty as he stared up at the ceiling, "You guys hurry up and grab a spot, too."

"Um, how about no?" Jihoon arched an eyebrow as he tried very hard not to just bolt out of the room in case his fellow member's idiocy catches onto him, "Is that makeup?"

"Yup, waiting for real ones to form would take too much time." Jeonghan replied, showing him the dark shade of eye-shadow they were using.

"I'm good." Jisoo smiled awkwardly as Jeonghan attempted to apply some on him.

"Anyway, where were you guys?" Seungcheol asked, a visibly tired look on his face as he looked from his spot on the floor.

"We were visiting the Performance Unit-"

"What?! By yourselves?!"

"Just thought Jihoon had some unfinished business with Jun, and-"

"Jisoo, you're a genius." Jeonghan's eyes were suddenly wide open as he sat up from the sofa, just as Seungcheol faceplanted right into the carpet, "We can use that!"

"Use what?" Jihoon cringed, knowing that he wasn't going to like the answer.

"You, Mingyu, Seokmin, and Hansol should go on double dates! Well, there are four of you, so I guess it'd be a _double_ double date, but you get the idea," Jeonghan rambled on, now hopping up and pacing around thoughtfully, "this needs to be done in broad daylight where _anyone_ can see you. Better yet, someone who runs a fansite."

"Where are you going with this?" Seungcheol rubbed his temple tiredly.

"Don't you get it? If word goes out that these guys are actually dating each other, fans may sign a petition for them to come back!" Jeonghan threw his hands up triumphantly, congratulating himself for thinking up such a brilliant plan, "And you guys will get to spend time with you significant others for an entire day even if it doesn't work, so it's a win-win."

"I don't know, it still sounds bizarre to me." Jihoon grumbled.

"I don't care as long as I get to see Minghao." Mingyu chirped happily, seemingly pleased with the plan.

Seokmin only smiled, sitting up from his spot on the table, "If that makes Jeonghan-hyung happy."

"Yeah, yeah." Hansol had replied nonchalantly, busy deciphering Mingyu's handwriting regarding the Performance Unit's new address.

"Terrific, I'll help you book the place tomorrow after I've looked up all the popular places fansite owners stakeout at." Jeonghan said gleefully, immediately zooming off to his room to do his "research".

Jihoon only blinked as the rest of the members got out of their zombie disguise and started chattering noisily again as usual. Sometimes he wondered if he should consider bringing back his whole guitar-swinging period to be heard, but, well, he wasn't going to complain too much if it meant more quality time with Junhui. Still, something just didn't sit well with him.

* * *

"By the way, Mingyu-hyung and the others are coming over to take you guys out on a date. Well, basically we're all going on a date together, according to Jeonghan-hyung's plan." Hansol explained with Chan sitting between his legs, tucked comfortably under his chin.

"Plan? What plan?" Minghao scowled lightly.

"Well, first of all, we're going to stop by that coffee shop the members usually hang out at, and then we're going to Soonyoung-hyung's favorite park, and then-"

"No, I meant what do you mean this is according to Jeonghan-hyung's plan?"

"The plan to get you guys out of here and back with us." Hansol replied nonchalantly, shrugging as he continued to nuzzle the younger boy in his arms affectionately, "Where you guys belong."

"...Okay, and how is a group date going to fix that?" Minghao sighed, just a little relieved that he wasn't present for one of Jeonghan's "enlightened" moments.

"Something about prompting the fans into signing a petition... I'm not sure how that part is going to work out either. But hey, I'm not saying no to a date with this guy." Hansol said, giving Chan's hand a squeeze.

Minghao rolled his eyes, young people these days have no restraint. "Well, I guess it would be a nice change of pace?" The younger Chinese dancer sighed, half because he knew no one's survived going against Jeonghan before, and half because he was actually looking forward to spending time with Mingyu, mostly for Mingyu's sake, of course.

Junhui looked at Hansol with disbelief, "And Jihoon was okay with it?"

"Obviously not, I'm sure Jeonghan-hyung just didn't give him a choice." Soonyoung scoffed, already in his room looking for the perfect outfit.

"...Well, at least one person is eager." Minghao sighed, finishing up the rest of his breakfast.

* * *

As the couples filed into the coffee shop and sat down at their usual spot with the group, they heard cameras immediately going off from outside but tried very hard to ignore them. At least Junhui was having a hard time, the others all seemed too occupied with catching up with their partners. He glanced across the table towards Jihoon, who wasn't trying to hide his annoyed expression at all. "Annoyed" didn't even begin to describe the look on his beloved's face, he was definitely, painstakingly, obviously,  _pissed_.

Junhui coughed lightly, looking at his menu, "So, um, what are you getting?" He asked, trying to sound nonchalant while ignoring the sloppy, disturbing kissing noises coming from Soonyoung and Seokmin's table, most of the noise was coming from Soonyoung as he continuously showered his claimed love of his life with affection. To be fair, the two probably had the least chances to interact since their leave, which was only a day ago, but still, Minghao, Junhui, and Chan were able to have a very short catch-up with their lovers yesterday while Soonyoung suffered.

Jihoon's jaw was clenched, his fingers holding the menu so tightly that crinkles were starting to appear on the pages.

"Um, how about I hold that for you?" Junhui tugged the almost ruined item out of Jihoon's fingers, "Just tell me when to turn the page."

Jihoon shook his head, "I'm good."

They fell into awkward silence until the waiter came over to take their order, but after that, more silence.

"I'm sorry, did I do something wrong?" Junhui asked, putting down his cup, "I mean, I know you prefer to tone down all the touchy-feely stuff in public, but this is ridiculous."

"It's fine, don't worry." Jihoon grumbled, playing with his teaspoon as sunlight reflected onto it, attempting to aim the reflected light into Soonyoung's eyes and successfully blinding him.

Okay, so he was going to do this the hard way. Junhui thought, _Well, that works just fine for me._ "But Jihoonie~ yesterday you told me you loved me, but today you're acting so cold! Are you tired of me already?" Junhui pouted, tilting his head upwards in a puppy pout, something that Mingyu taught him to do as it's apparently proven to be effective for Minghao.

The corner of Jihoon's mouth twitched, but no response came.

Junhui sighed and decided to distract himself by playing with the paper wrappers that the straws came in instead.

"I'm sorry, it's just... this wasn't how I pictured our first date." Jihoon finally admitted, his tone heavy, a hand sliding over the table to play with Junhui's fingers, "It's so unromantic with the other guys here, and I was really hoping that I could take you somewhere new on a date instead of the usual hangout spots." He muttered, threading his fingers between Junhui's.

Junhui looked at him quizzically, "That's what you were annoyed about?"

"THIS IS YOUR FIRST DATE?!" Mingyu and Soonyoung hollered at the same time.

There was death in Jihoon's eyes as he lowered his gaze, suddenly very interested in the foam pattern forming on his latte, "I mean, I know I'm not the most romantic person either, but... you deserve better." He finished with a sigh, slapping a hand on Soonyoung's face to close the latter's mouth.

Junhui hurriedly shook his head, ignoring the others' stares, "No, no, that's actually really sweet of you to think, but I'm really fine with this! It's fun with the others around, I mean, sure, it'd be nice with just us, but what I mean to say is-"

Junhui's eyes grew wide as Jihoon leaned over, cutting his sentence short by giving a small peck to his lips.

"Go on, you were saying?" Jihoon asked, settling back into his own seat, a slight smirk on his face as the tip of his tongue poked out and ran itself over where their lips briefly touched. Junhui could have sworn he heard a sigh of content come from the smaller guy as he studied Junhui's shocked expression.

"I love you." Was the only thing Junhui could stutter out.

Jihoon scoffed and rolled his eyes but with a satisfied grin.

"Sometimes I think you're the worst out of all of us." Soonyoung commented, cringing.

Seokmin tugged gently on Soonyoung's collar, "Which is why you don't have to worry about them, meanwhile... I believe I'm losing some attention here?" He smiled teasingly as Soonyoung immediately began to shower kisses over him again.

Chan made a face at the older couples, "Amateurs."

"Play nice, it's not a competition." Hansol soothed, running his hand through Chan's hair lovingly.

"Well, he's right." Minghao shrugged, sipping his tea calmly, "I do feel bad that Jihoon-hyung and Jun-hyung have to have their first date under these circumstances though."

Mingyu bobbed up-and-down his chair excitedly, "Yeah! Our first date was perfect! You remember, Hao? It was-"

"Like a dream come true, yes, yes." Minghao reached over to give a calming pat to his boyfriend.

Mingyu nodded happily, his metaphorical tail wagging.

* * *

"Good, good, that's it." Jeonghan smirked evilly as he scrolled through the pages and pages of "couple sightings" fansites are uploading onto social media, then suddenly stopped short, "I've made a terrible miscalculation."

"What is it now?" Seungcheol sighed, putting a glass of water down on the table that was meant as "refreshments" for Jeonghan.

" _Forbidden love_ , Seungcheol, everyone likes forbidden love. The fact that these couples would be so appealing is because they are separated by a tragic border-"

"Okay, you're starting to sound a lot like Jisoo, so can you please just get to the point?"

"We need them to stage a breakup."

"All right, that was probably too big of a jump, mind rewinding a little before the point?"

Jeonghan sighed, getting up to pace back-and-forth again, "The fans have already seen them happy together, but just that isn't enough to get them to start a petition, now they need to see them _un_ happy and specifically because of this separation."

"Yeah, still lost here."

"Something like... they're breaking up because of the long distance. Fans who don't want to see them breakup will start the petition to 'shorten the distance', and by shortening the distance I mean bring the Performance Unit back. It's fool-proof!"

"Suuuure..." Seungcheol grumbled unenthusiastically, "You know, I think you're just having too much fun with this-"

"No, no, listen to me Seungcheol, this will work!"

Seungcheol sighed heavily as Jeonghan went back to his computer doing whatever research he needed for the next step of his plan, "It better..."


	9. Baby It's All Right I'll Call You Mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Possessive Jihoon being possessive. Like, extremely possessive.  
> Warning: More mentioned/implied sex, much heavier than last time.

As Jihoon entered the dining room sluggishly, Seungcheol glanced across at him from the table, then stole a quick glance towards the living room where Jeonghan and Jisoo were talking on the sofa, seemingly discussing something. The leader could only hope that they didn't come up with another plan overnight.

Seungcheol gave out a quiet cough, leaning over the table towards Jihoon, "Look, I think I should warn you before a certain someone does..."

"Great, what fresh hell are you trying to give to me this early in the morning?" Jihoon grumbled, still a little tired out from yesterday's event.

Looking back briefly towards the sofa to make sure Jeonghan was still occupied, Seungcheol turned to face Jihoon again, "Jeonghan's going to make you break up with Jun."

"Yeah, not going to happen. Why would he even do that?" Jihoon's response was quick, his brow arching skeptically.

"Jeonghan logic."

Before Seungcheol could explain more, Jeonghan had walked over to the table, putting a hand on Jihoon's shoulder, "Jihoonie, we need to talk."

"About me breaking up with Jun? Forget it." Jihoon rolled his eyes, shrugging Jeonghan's hand off him.

"At least let me explain first. You're not _really_ breaking up with him, just _pretending_ you are." Jeonghan continued on, repeating what he explained to Seungcheol last night, not caring about how Jihoon's expression had grown from puzzled to just plain bored.

Rolling his eyes, Jihoon got up from his seat along with the rest of his breakfast, thinking that he could probably find somewhere quieter and less asylum-like outside.

"You'll do it, right?" Jeonghan called after him, but was only met with a door slam.

_I think he's getting worse..._ Jihoon thought to himself, walking down the steps outside their building towards the park. It was early enough so the park wasn't too crowded yet, which meant Jihoon could probably use one of the picnic tables and finish up his breakfast.

As he headed towards the direction of the picnic area, he was slightly disappointed to see that there were others there already. The two figures occupying the picnic table had their heads close together as though they were whispering in each other's ear, even though there was no one else close enough to hear their conversation anyway.

Jihoon pondered on whether he should just settle with a park bench or bet his luck and wait for the couple to leave, until he realized that one of the figures seemed incredibly familiar... scratch that, _both_ of them seemed awfully familiar, much to Jihoon's horror.

And that was when Jihoon dropped his entire breakfast tray.

* * *

"Hey." Wonwoo walked up, tapping Junhui on the shoulder as the latter sat at the picnic table, waiting for his best friend.

Junhui turned around, a wide smile appearing on his face at the sight of his bro for life, "Hey."

He watched as Wonwoo took his seat across from himself, then leaned his head lazily against his prompted up arm, "How's life with just the Performance Unit?"

"Kind of quiet, basically what you'd expect. The dorm is pretty nice, I guess, a little too roomy for my tastes though." Junhui joked, staring at the trail of ants running a line-up across the table.

Wonwoo only nodded knowingly in response, and the two fell silent. Not that there wasn't anything to say, but because there was just _so much_ to say, and neither of them knew where to begin.

_Are you taking care of yourselves? How are they treating you? Are you happy? I miss you..._

"I-" Junhui began, but cut himself off when he saw the look in Wonwoo's eyes as they made eye contact, a very gentle and warm gaze which seemed so familiar to Junhui, and the latter just couldn't bring himself to continue on, afraid that his voice would break.

As though reading Junhui's mind, Wonwoo leaned forward and pulled Junhui's head closer to his, their foreheads pressing together, "I know..." Wonwoo whispered, closing his eyes, "I know."

The two stayed like that for a while, just feeling each other's presence again was enough, no need for any fancy words or long conversations. This was enough.

Suddenly, the two were interrupted by a crash and quickly pulled apart to inspect whatever damage that might have happened, only to see a very shocked Jihoon standing with his arms sticking stiffly to his sides, spilled cola running everywhere on the ground in front of his feet.

"Jihoon!" Junhui quickly stood up, "I can't believe you woke up early!"

Wonwoo cringed at the dark look in Jihoon's eyes which was somehow directed at him, and got up from his seat, sensing that he shouldn't stay long in Jihoon's presence. "It was nice seeing you again, Jun," he patted Junhui on the shoulder, leaning over one last time to mutter in his ear, "we should meet again soon, hopefully when one of us is not in danger of getting skinned alive."

"What?" Junhui blinked, turning around to look at his friend, but the rapper was already gone.

Still quite confused, Junhui turned his attention to Jihoon instead, "Oh god, we should get you cleaned up-" but with one swift movement, the latter had stepped over the remains of his breakfast and pushed Junhui back down into his seat, "Jihoon?"

"You're right, we should get it cleaned up. Since it's your fault, why don't you do the honors?" Jihoon spoke in a dangerously low voice, his eyes gazing coldly into Junhui's.

"My fault? What did I-"

"Are you going to do it or not?" Jihoon's voice had dropped to a hiss as he tilted Junhui's chin up, giving him a full view of the "damage" on his clothes from the sticky beverage.

"I-I don't have any napkins..." Junhui's gaze darted away, something was definitely off about Jihoon.

"Well, I guess you'll just have to clean it up with something else." Jihoon licked his lips suggestively.

Junhui felt his mouth go dry. Was Jihoon suggesting what he thought he was suggesting?

Gripping Jihoon's shirt and pulling it down slightly, Junhui stuck his tongue out with uncertainty, lapping gently at the skin underneath the cola stains.

"Good boy." Jihoon purred, running a hand through Junhui's hair, smirking as the latter struggled with the task. After a couple more clumsy licks were attempted by Junhui, Jihoon pulled the dancer's head away, tugging lightly on his hair as he did so, "Well, at least you tried," Jihoon leaned closer and ran his own tongue down Junhui's neck, finishing it up with a wet kiss near the latter's collarbone, "you want a reward, baby?"

Junhui trembled underneath Jihoon's touch, too scared from fear to move, or was it from excitement? He wasn't all that sure, but damn, Jihoon looked and sounded so freakin' hot that Junhui couldn't resist nodding, not even questioning the new pet name.

"Let's take this up to my room. If you'll last until then, that is." Jihoon smirked darkly.

* * *

_Oh god, what have I done?_ Jihoon looked down in horror at what appeared to be bruises on Junhui's neck, a rope tied around both wrists, and bite marks pretty much everywhere. Gently flipping Junhui's seemingly unconscious body around, Jihoon found red palm marks on particularly obscene locations. He felt like shriveling up and dying right then and there.

_What. Have. I. Done?_

Jihoon was relieved to feel stirring coming from Junhui, and eventually the latter opened his eyes, a reassuring smile on his face, clearly having noticed the worried look in Jihoon's eyes. The vocalist let out a sigh of relief as Junhui slowly sat up next to him on the bed, trying not to wince from what appears to be the result of their little activity earlier.

"This is terrible." Jihoon muttered, removing the rope to reveal an ugly purple bruise circling itself around his boyfriend's slim wrists, "I can't believe I actually hurt you." He whispered, bringing Junhui's hands up and kissing the markings gently.

"Don't worry, it doesn't hurt as much as it looks." Junhui insisted, moving his hands away and hiding them underneath the blanket.

"I'm a terrible person." Jihoon covered his face with his hands.

"Jihoon, it's okay-"

"It's not okay! How can this possibly be okay?!" Jihoon blurted out, lifting Junhui's arm up to reveal the countless bite marks and bruises scattered all over it. Taking a deep breath, Jihoon got halfway out of the bed with his feet touching the floor, "I'm sorry... You see? I always take my anger out on you."

"Better than just bottling it in." Junhui pressed, placing a hand on the shorter boy's shoulder.

"I don't want to treat you as a punching bag, you don't deserve this treatment."

"But-"

"I've been taking advantage of your kindness all this time." Jihoon continued, "I know. You don't have to force yourself to be with me."

"But I'm not!" Junhui's eyes widened, he knew exactly where this was going, yet he hoped it could somehow be stopped, that the conversation could somehow be steered towards a different direction.

"...I think it's time to breakup, Jun."

_I can't bear to hurt you ever again._

* * *

"You did do it after all!" Jeonghan cried triumphantly, coming into Jihoon's room shortly after Junhui's leave, "But man, Jun's a good actor! I completely believed that dejected look, you have to admire how committed he is to-" the older's smile dropped upon seeing Jihoon's pained expression, "Oh dear. Please don't tell me... that wasn't acting, was it?"

Jihoon nodded sadly, his body still trembling slightly from the memory.

Without another word, Jeonghan sat down at the edge of the bed with Jihoon, putting his arms around him comfortingly.

Jihoon waited for the tears to flow out of his eyes, but they didn't. Like their owner, they stubbornly clung onto the edge, unwilling to let go, until push came to shove.

* * *

"You didn't even put up a fight?" Minghao asked as Junhui broke the news to the rest of the unit, his eyes accusing.

"Minghao, go easy on him, he's already had a rough day." Soonyoung sighed, putting a cup of warm tea in front of Junhui, rubbing his shoulder gently, taking note of the marking around Junhui's wrists and neck, but didn't question them.

"I just can't believe it's over..." Junhui sighed, staring at his reflection on the beverage's surface.

"Same, I was so sure that you two were made for each other." Chan commented, coming around to sit on Junhui's other side, placing a comforting hand on the older dancer's knee.

"I, for one, still think they are. There is no such thing as a relationship that doesn't come with bumps." Minghao shrugged, but came over to wrap his arms around Junhui's neck from behind, swaying from side-to-side at a gentle pace, "I'm not asking you to get over it, and I'm not going to ask what happened," he stated, glancing briefly at the visible bruises, "but I really don't think you should give up on him altogether."

Junhui sighed, putting his hands over Soonyoung's and Chan's, nuzzling against Minghao, "Thanks, guys... It means a lot."

_"You know, Hansol's getting more handsome than ever, I can't believe he's the second youngest member in the group." Junhui had commented._

_"He's okay." Jihoon had grumbled, a slight hint of annoyance in his voice._

_"Aw, Jihoonie, are you jealous~?"_

_"Is there anything wrong with that?" Jihoon had pulled Junhui down, giving him a sloppy kiss and light nibble on the bottom lip, "You're mine, after all."_

_Junhui had blushed and wondered if Jihoon had always been this assertive. Clearly the members hadn't been giving him enough credit as to how cheesy he could be despite his infamous hatred towards corny lines._

_When will you call me yours again?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next update will come a little later...  
> (I honestly didn't think this chapter would be so heavy, wow)


	10. Just Things Like That Inside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The maknae line meet up at the coffee shop (with Seungcheol standing guard outside) after the Performance Unit's "debut" under their new company; meanwhile Soonyoung and Junhui watch an interview of SEVENTEEN, leading to... tension.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thinking about sneaking in yet another underappreciated couple, can you spot it? (well, it's pretty obvious)

"So, um, how are you guys doing?" Seungkwan asked, putting down his drink and looking up at Minghao and Chan, "I mean, I saw on TV that you guys have been gaining quite a bit of popularity since the debut showcase, what I mean to ask is, are you guys doing well in terms of eating, sleeping-"

"For the nth time, we're fine!" Minghao laughed, reaching over to ruffle his dongsaeng's hair, "I swear, sometimes you're worse than Jeonghan."

"That aside, are you sure it's okay to just let Seungcheol-hyung stand outside like that?" Chan asked from his position on Hansol's lap, nobody seemed to find their obvious show of PDA odd and were far too accustomed to it to feel secondhand embarrassment at this point.

"He was the one who insisted on coming, he's fine," Seungkwan rolled his eyes dramatically, "I wanted to come alone, but he bribed Mingyu and Seokmin into coming along, and as if that wasn't enough, he came himself anyway. On the other hand, I have no idea how this guy knew we were having a meetup." Seungkwan indicated towards Hansol.

"Well, at least Seungcheol-hyung's giving us privacy? It's been a while since we've had a maknae-to-maknae talk."

"True."

The group fell into silence.

Seungkwan coughed, "Actually, I wanted to ask this on behalf of a certain someone, but how is Jun-hyung doing in terms of... you know..." the vocalist trailed off, glancing towards the other younger members uncomfortably.

"Not great. He's been doing nothing but looking at pictures of Jihoon-hyung on his phone, taping every single performance just so he can zoom-in on his face, etc." Minghao sighed, "He refuses to tell us what exactly happened that caused the breakup though."

Suddenly, Seungkwan stood up with such force that the table was almost knocked over, "That's great!"

Minghao and Chan quirked their eyebrows simultaneously. Maybe the pressure was finally getting to Seungkwan, God forbid that Jihoon was letting out his newly added tension on his poor dongsaeng. Nah, that was impossible, even Jihoon had enough mercy to spare- never mind.

"Excuse me, but what's so great about that?" Chan scoffed, briefly distracted from his cuddling session with Hansol.

"Jihoon-hyung's dealing with it terribly as well, like, _awfully_ , it's absolutely _horrid_!" Seungkwan cried, but was only met with more confused looks from the younger dances.

"You see, we were hoping they'd see how unhappy each other are, and this way it'd be easier to make them realize they still need the other in their lives." Seokmin translated.

"Oh, I guess I see where you're going with this." Minghao mumbled thoughtfully, "But to be honest, I don't think it's a good idea to meddle, speaking from experience."

Detecting some juicy gossip, Seungkwan opened his mouth to inquire further but was stopped by Seokmin, "I'm sure we'd all love to hear about that flashback, but I think Seungcheol-hyung's in some sort of pickle."

The other five turned their heads towards the coffee shop entrance to see Seungcheol standing behind Jihoon, both had an extremely hurt look on their faces, while a very ferocious-looking Soonyong snarled and attempted to break free from Junhui's arms, looking as though he'd like to land a punch on either Seungcheol or Jihoon (they couldn't tell from the angle) with no hesitance to speak of.

Chan sighed, rubbing his temple as they all got up to aid Junhui in holding back Soonyoung, "It's supposed to be our maknae talk time, but how come all we can talk about centers around the hyungs?"

* * *

"You okay there?" Soonyoung asked, cautiously coming around the couch with a bowl of popcorn, wincing as he saw Junhui sitting up in front of the television with his recording system all setup.

"Yeah, the interview's about to start! They're supposed to be talking about this new concept they're tackling for the upcoming comeback." Junhui explained excitedly, ignoring the dark circles that were starting to show under his eyes.

"Sure, I bet the concept is 'a Performance-Unit-less SVT'." Soonyoung grumbled.

"Hey, we agreed, no bitterness." Junhui hopped onto the couch, pulling Soonyoung down playfully next to him and stealing a handful of popcorn in the process.

"You know I'm just playing~" Soonyoung feigned a whine as he squeezed himself into the space Junhui had scooted out for him.

Now that Minghao and Chan were out, they figured they should have a little "hyung time" as well, and what better way to spend that time than watch the interview of their "bias group"?

The interview seemed to be going great until Seungcheol's closing comment regarding the question, "What groups are you looking out for this year?"

"Well, I really hope that you would take the time to get to know this new group lead by Kwon Soonyoung who just had their debut showcase a couple days ago." Seungcheol replied, "They're made up of four extremely talented members-"

"Ah, yes, aren't they originally members of SEVENTEEN?" The MC cut in from the side.

"Yes, but due to complicated circumstances, they have now split off from us, but we still wish them all the best!" Seungcheol added quickly, smiling at the camera, "This industry can be harsh at times, but I'm sure you'll be fine!"

-click-

Silence.

"...Soonyoung?" Junhui whispered, putting a hand over his leader's shaking one.

"They didn't..." Soonyoung took in a deep breath, "Please tell me they didn't just try to attract more attention for us like we're some sort of rookie group covered by their dear sunbaenim."

"I know... it's like they don't trust us to make it on our own." Junhui said softly, stroking Soonyoung's hair soothingly.

"This isn't right. That's it, I'm going down there."

"Soonyoung, wait!" Junhui called, but it was too late, Soonyoung had already stormed out of the building towards the cafe.

By the time Junhui caught up to his group leader, the latter was already confronting Seungcheol. By confronting, he meant basically screaming into their former leader's face. Due to the difference in volume, Junhui couldn't quite catch the entire conversation and registered mostly snippets as he instinctively grabbed onto Soonyoung's arms and attempted to drag him back so that he was a safe distance from Seungcheol.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?! We can get our own fans, thank you very much! Now we're going to be forever known as 'the group that left SEVENTEEN' and 'is only famous due to their relationship with SEVENTEEN', and you dare to say 'wish you all the best' after ruining our one chance to shine independently?! We literally _just_ debuted, and thanks to you, our reputation is already looking hopeless."

"So you want us to just turn a cold shoulder towards you guys? Whatever happened to supporting each other-"

"We're not the same group anymore, Seungcheol! Heck, we're not even signed under the same company anymore, open your eyes and face it!"

"Jun!" Junhui winced as an awfully familiar voice joined in the already muddled conversation, a voice he's been longing to hear for the longest time but now was definitely not a good time, "Jun, I-"

"You!" Soonyoung turned his attention towards Jihoon instead, momentarily abandoning his need to rip Seungcheol into shreds, "You think you can just make a hit-and-run like that on my precious teammate?!"

"What?" Jihoon blinked, surprised at the foreign hostility. In all these years he's known Soonyoung, he's never seen him in this state before.

"Please, we all saw the markings, it wasn't hard to figure everything out." Soonyoung rolled his eyes, "And then you dared break up with him in his time of need-"

"Soonyoung, let's just go home." Junhui begged, dragging Soonyoung backwards desperately.

"Hell no, I ain't done here-"

"Hyung, what the hell?!" Seungkwan screamed, running out of the cafe along with the rest of the maknae group, each finding their leaders and separating them until a safe distance was established.

"What happened?" Seokmin asked calmly, fanning Seungcheol and Jihoon until their shocked expressions slowly started to soften.

"Well... it would appear that they watched the interview."

"What about it?" Mingyu asked, as lost as ever.

" _'What about it'?!_ Can you believe this kid?"

"Shh, shh, you're fine." Minghao cooed, suppressing Soonyoung's right fist as Junhui took care of the left and Chan held him back by the waist, "I'm sorry, our leader's been a little stressed after the debut showcase."

Jihoon only nodded in a seemingly understanding manner as the Performance Unit continued to restrain their leader, "Yes, well... _you_ take care of _your_ leader, and _we_ will return with  _ours_." Hostility almost equal to Soonyoung's clearly dripped off of each word.

Junhui's eyes grew wide as the members urged Seungcheol away, albeit while casting regretful glances back at their former group members, Jihoon was the last to turn away.

"Jihoon, wait-" Junhui reached towards the smaller's hand, but the latter only shook him away harshly.

"I'm sorry, all I ever do is hurt you. We shouldn't meet anymore." Jihoon muttered with his gaze averted.

"No, no, no, please don't say that. Anything but that." Junhui pleaded, pulling the other boy by the shoulders into a firm hug, "We can work this out, please."

"Leave him, Jun, we don't need any of them!" Soonyoung shouted from his position within Minghao and Chan's iron grip.

"Watch it, this is their own matter, and Seokmin's still within earshot, I'm sure he appreciates what you just said." Minghao hissed, his own patience ebbing away.

Surprisingly, Jihoon didn't budge from Junhui's hold, instead, it seemed like he was pressing into it, rubbing Junhui's arms soothingly, "Believe me, this is hurting me just as much as it is for you," he choked out, "I love you, Jun."

"Then-"

"But it's not going to work. Not under these circumstances." Jihoon's voice was almost a whisper as he slowly slipped out of Junhui's grasp, following after the others back to their dorms, leaving their former Performance Unit to return back to theirs.

* * *

"Guess what? I know it's not the right time, but-"

"Just say it, Jeonghan." Seungcheol sighed, putting his glass of cola down. He had been having trouble sleeping since the argument with Soonyoung, and another one of Jeonghan's shenanigans was the last thing he needed.

"They did it."

"Who did what?"

"The fans. They did it." Jeonghan held up his laptop, showing what appears to be a trend rank gathered from social media, "The Performance Unit can come back, the petition was a success!"

Seungcheol's eyes widened, grabbing the laptop to take a better look at the beauty that was the power of fan support, but his happiness was quickly squandered by the reminder of Soonyoung's outburst, "They're not going to come back after that."

"Well, they have to." Jeonghan insisted, taking his laptop back, "I'm going to show this to the company right now."

"Jeonghan, nothing matters if they won't come back themselves." Seungcheol sighed, rubbing his temple tiredly.

"Like I said, they have to come back, this is their home." Jeonghan continued stubbornly, walking towards the doorway, "And they're my babies."

"You know they're not really- never mind, you're not listening."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On an irrelevant note, I wish to explore JunCheol someday... their dynamics seem... hnnnghh...


	11. Shh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jihoon, Seungcheol, Jeonghan, Jisoo, and Seokmin go to "retrieve" the Performance Unit, leading to an uncomfortable "tea party" with Soonyoung where Jihoon is constantly distracted by Junhui's appearance in the room now and then.  
> Later, Chan and Hansol give "the talk" to Jihoon and Junhui, Minghao is offended- jk Minghao and Mingyu give a... different talk to Junhui.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, heavily implied you-know-what.

"There better be a good reason for this." Soonyoung grumbled, crossing his arms as he opened the door to see Seungcheol and Jihoon standing on the porch.

The two co-leaders looked at each other uncomfortably, but before either could speak, Jeonghan popped up behind them and pushed them inside cheerfully, ignoring Soonyoung's protests, "Oh, we have a good reason, don't worry!"

Soonyoung continued to gape as Jisoo followed the other three in nonchalantly, "It'll be fine," Seokmin assured as he followed the others in as well, pulling Soonyoung in by the arm gently and closing the door behind them. The former unit leader opened his mouth but then closed it again. He honestly couldn't bring himself to get upset in front of Seokmin. Well played, Jeonghan, well played.

Still full of reluctance, Soonyoung plopped down on the couch, indicating for the others to sit on the one opposite to his, "So? What is it this time? If you've come to apologize-"

"Look." Seungcheol slid the newly obtained paperwork over to Soonyoung and watched as their former choreographer's eyes grew wide as they scanned over the content.

"This isn't what I think it is, right?" Soonyoung whispered, turning the page.

"The fans want you back," Seungcheol continued, his hands were balled tightly into fists as they sat stiffly on his lap, " _we_ want you back. However, the important thing is, do _you_ want to come back?"

The leader held his breath as Soonyoung's brow furrowed, running a hand through his newly styled hair thoughtfully, "I'll talk it over with the others first..."

"Talk to us about what- oh, hey!" Chan greeted cheerfully from the doorway with Minghao and Junhui behind him.

Jihoon visibly stiffened even more than he already had upon entering unfamiliar territory, "I'm, uh, we're here for you, I mean-"

"Go play in Minghao's room." Soonyoung waved the others away.

"Why my room?" Minghao arched an eyebrow, "And you didn't answer Chan's question."

"I'll explain later, okay?" Soonyoung sighed.

"The company's granted permission for you guys to come back." Jisoo explained, holding out the paperwork for the others to read as well.

Chan's eyes grew wide as he read the contents out for the other two behind him, whose eyes also grew larger, "This is pretty sudden... 'SEVENTEEN's been suffering from a decrease in popularity after the Performance Unit's removal'?"

"Uh huh... so they're worried about actually going bankrupt this time? That's... ironic." Minghao said skeptically as the expressions on the SEVENTEEN representatives fell even further. Soonyoung's unwillingness was expected, but it seemed that the other dancers weren't as thrilled either, "Don't get us wrong, we're not holding a grudge against you guys, it's just... you know... it's not exactly great to be jerked around, we just need some time to think it over and, more importantly, rest. We barely just settled down." Minghao added quickly as the others nodded, backing him up.

"Yeah, we get it, don't worry, take your time." Seokmin smiled knowingly as the dancers sans Soonyoung excused themselves and returned to whatever activities they were endorsed in before getting distracted.

Seungcheol turned back to Soonyoung, "It's your call."

"About time, huh?" Soonyoung mumbled, clearly not as forgiving as Minghao.

Before the discussion could turn into an argument, Junhui poked his head in again, setting a cup of tea down in front of everyone, "Refreshments. Thought it may take a while, also just in case Soonyoung starts... heating up again."

"I told you, I'll behave!" Soonyoung half whined, noting that he was the only one getting served iced tea, not that he was complaining since the AC barely works in their dorm.

"I'm sure." Junhui rolled his eyes, reaching over to ruffle Soonyoung's hair before turning to take his leave, only to find his wrist getting trapped in a tight grip by none other than Jihoon, he was briefly washed away by a sense of deja vu.

"Oh, sorry..." Jihoon hesitantly pulled his hand back, shrinking back into his spot on the couch, his gaze averted and suddenly very focused on his tea.

"Erm, no problem..." Junhui mumbled back, quickly making his way out of the living room.

Jeonghan watched as Jihoon's eyes followed Junhui's retreating figure intensely, "You know what? We should settle all personal relationships now so that there's one less thing to worry about," he rolled his eyes as the younger vocalist looked at him with puzzlement in his eyes, "go after him, you dummy." Jeonghan was probably the only one who could get away with calling Jihoon that, even in this state.

Jihoon didn't need to be given permission twice as he raced out of the room while ignoring Soonyoung's protests, finding Junhui in the kitchen seemingly sneaking cola up for Minghao and Chan. However, the beverages were dropped as the latter turned around, completely caught off guard.

"Jihoon, w-"

Jihoon didn't expect himself to be so violent, especially when he was so afraid of hurting Junhui again, yet he was also amazed by the amount of self control he had as he pushed Junhui back against the counter, his lips ghosting over the latter's in the softest way possible, and was delighted to feel Junhui push his head forward, eager for a better taste of him.

"...What exactly are we doing?" Junhui breathed as their foreheads pressed against each other.

"I guess it was impossible for me to actually set you free." Jihoon whispered, sliding his palms under Junhui's, holding the latter's hands in his tightly, "I'm sorry..."

"Stop apologizing for everything!" Junhui intercepted, guiding their hands up and threading his fingers between Jihoon's, "If you're really sorry, then promise me-"

"Anything."

"-to never leave me ever again," Junhui kissed Jihoon's forehead lovingly, "and I won't ever leave you."

Jihoon sighed in content, bringing Junhui's hands up to plant light pecks over his fingers, "I promise-" but a scowl soon began to show as his thoughts wandered off briefly.

"What is it?" Junhui's heart started quickening again, wondering if Jihoon had suddenly reached an epiphany that would tear them apart again.

"Let me propose to you."

"...What?"

"I mean, not now, but what I'm saying is... I want to be the one to do it." Jihoon explained clumsily.

"Well, that depends... if you wait for too long I might do it." Junhui joked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Jihoon suddenly got down on one knee, looking up into Junhui's eyes intensely, "Will you marry me?"

Junhui couldn't tell if he was joking or not, but he found himself unable to look away from his gaze or just shrug the question off, "...You said not now."

"It's all about the element of surprise." Jihoon gave a small smile, rubbing the tips of Junhui's fingers soothingly.

"Gosh, you're more like Soonyoung than either of you think." Junhui looked around uneasily, the environment was definitely less than ideal. His fingers were still a little sticky from opening the cola bottles, not to mention they were in the Performance Unit's rundown kitchen with the other members sitting in the living room and upstairs, possibly listening in.

"Yeah, you're right." Jihoon sighed, getting up and pulling Junhui closer, "That was way too unromantic, even for me. Forget it."

"Well, for the record..." Junhui mumbled, looking Jihoon in the eyes, "I would have said yes."

Jihoon quirked an eyebrow up at the dancer, unsure of whether he was joking or not.

"I'm sorry, the element of surprise, was it?" Junhui laughed, pulling away sheepishly.

"No, you're fine." Jihoon smiled, the most genuine smile he's given since as far back as he could remember.

* * *

Junhui chuckled as Jihoon bumped their teeth together by accident, the two easing themselves onto Junhui's bed, "Don't laugh, it's been a while." Jihoon mumbled as Junhui kissed his cheek comfortingly, trying not to pout.

"I'll say." Junhui replied, pulling the vocalist's head down for a sloppy kiss.

Jihoon growled into the kiss, biting Junhui's bottom lip, but was suddenly distracted by how... lumpy the bed was. Breaking away with reluctance, Jihoon looked down at Junhui, "Is your bed always this untidy?"

Junhui shrugged, "Aren't you always messy with this?"

"Well-"

"Stop focusing on how messed up the place is and focus on messing _me_ up." Junhui whined, biting at Jihoon's neck as a hum of pleasure formed in the latter's throat.

"If you insist-"

"Wait, wait, hyung!" A muffled cry came from right next to them, and the two froze before slowly turning towards the side where the blanket had been pushed into a giant bundle, or at least that was what Jihoon had assumed to had happened to it.

Slowly, Junhui nudged the blanket off whatever it was covering with his leg, "Chan?! Hansol?! How did you get in here- no, first things first, why are you two in _my_ bed?"

"Since we used Soonyoung-hyung's last time we figured it was only fair-"

"Never mind, I regret asking that, please just stop talking."

Hansol smiled his signature lopsided smile with just a tad bit of bashfulness as Chan still had his legs wrapped around his waist, "Come on, you can't blame us for trying to make the best out of our time together."

"But you two are _always_ together! Tell them off, Jun." Jihoon looked at Junhui, getting up from his position to cross his arms in contempt.

"Huh? Uh..." Junhui seemed dumbfounded by the newly assigned responsibility, "Right, you, uh... you are no longer my favorite dongsaeng." He declared lamely as Jihoon facepalmed.

"Really?" Hansol looked briefly worried for a second as his eyes grew wide, but then flashed a confident smile, "Nah, you wouldn't."

"Yeah, you're right, I wouldn't. C'mere." Junhui sighed, giving a hug to the younger male.

Chan and Jihoon simply sat on the side, watching the odd exchange and wondering why they were with these people.

"Anyway... I hope you guys were playing safe." Jihoon stated after finally having everyone in the room sit down for what he hoped to be a formal talk.

"Of course, we've been doing this for way longer than you guys have." Chan huffed, "Which reminds me, you guys didn't seem like you were 'playing' safe."

"Of course we were, I have-" Jihoon stopped short, realizing he had come empty handed, "Well, Jun has-" he glanced over at his partner, but was only met with a sad shake of the head, looks like he had either ran out or just didn't prepare at all, they had only ever done it at Jihoon's place after all.

"Mhm." Chan crossed his arms, "Aren't you glad you bumped into us before anything stupid happened?"

"Not to that extent... besides, what's the worst thing that could have happened? We all get checked regularly, and I can't get him pregnant-"

"So it's true, you really are on the bottom, hyung?!" Hansol asked with genuine curiosity towards Junhui.

"Well, uh... haha...?" Junhui scratched his head sheepishly, "I mean, it just sort of happened, it's not like you can plan these things."

"You make it sound like you're unwilling." Jihoon glared.

"No, no! It's great! _You're_ great!" Junhui quickly cooed, rubbing Jihoon's shoulders warmly.

"...Yeah, this is why everyone was surprised." Chan sighed, leaning against Hansol comfortably, "Then again, Jun-hyung is whipped."

"Hey now, they're whipped for each other." Hansol replied, putting a hand around his boyfriend's shoulders to nuzzle him closer.

* * *

"Minghao, have you ever done it with Mingyu?" Junhui suddenly asked as the two played a round of chess in the younger Chinese member's room.

"Nope." Minghao didn't seem the least fazed by the question.

"Why not? You've been dating for a while."

Minghao stopped to look Junhui in the eyes and sighed deeply, "Dating is not all about that, you know? I kind of just want to enjoy being with him like this." He indicated towards the giant figure resting on his lap under the table.

Junhui eyed Mingyu suspiciously. Where exactly were Hansol and him slipping in from? It was getting a little creepy to be completely honest.

"We're both satisfied with just this, and it doesn't make us a lesser couple, look at you and Jihoon-hyung." Minghao scoffed, stroking Mingyu's hair softly.

"Well, we're fairly new..." Junhui sighed, "I envy you two, not needing any physical confirmation to show that your relationship's still alive."

"Are you having problems again so soon after reconciling?" Mingyu asked, sitting up slightly.

"Not really, it's probably just me. Jihoon isn't really the touchy-feely guy except when we're doing... you know... and we barely get to see each other because he's a workaholic, it gets a little lonely. I mean, I don't doubt his feelings for me, it's just... I wouldn't mind being one of those idiot couples on a date."

"So Soonyoung-hyung and Seokmin." Minghao raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah."

"You know what? It'll work out."

A moment of silence passed through the room as Junhui focused on his next move, only to be interrupted by Mingyu, "So are you guys returning to the group?" Causing both dancers to go through a coughing fit despite not having drunken anything, "Sorry."

"We'll, uh, we'll see? We haven't been able to have a private meeting with just the four of us, so..."

Mingyu nodded obediently, resting his head back down on Minghao's lap, "I miss having you guys around."

"Same..." Junhui reached over to pat Mingyu on the shoulder, "It's been a little exhausting with all the changes though, so I understand why Soonyoung's being hesitant."

Minghao nodded, "Don't worry about it though, I'm sure things will come around soon. There's always Seokmin as a secret weapon."

"Seokmin's very supportive of Soonyoung, I doubt he'll have the heart to make him come back if he's honestly reluctant." Junhui noted thoughtfully.

"Hm, true," Minghao shrugged, putting away the board game to tidy up for the night, "I guess we'll just have to see."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do we learn? ChanSol = sex fiends //shot


	12. Just You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Performance Unit ease slowly back into the group, but sometimes returning is even harder than leaving.  
> But after that everything else is just fluff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case certain parts don't make sense, Junhui apparently reads fanfiction, and Hansol... idk, I just kind of wanted these two to be the fanfic dorks.

"You guys suck." Soonyoung said bitterly, pouting in a highly immature fashion as he shook his head at his fellow members, "Leaving the single life has changed you."

"First of all, Chan and I left that lane a pretty long time ago, second of all, suck it up, it's three against one." Minghao stated, placing his hands firmly on his sides as the Performance Unit finished voting on whether to accept the newly offered contract or not. The result was three against one, the favor goes to accepting the offer.

"Fine, and since I'm such a kind and forgiving leader, I will grant my members' wishes." Soonyoung unwillingly took out his cellphone to text the manager their decision.

Minghao rolled his eyes as Junhui leaned over the table to pat Soonyoung on the head, "Yes, and we're all grateful."

Soonyoung merely scoffed in response as he finished typing out the last of his message, "Aaand sent. Congratulations, we are now back to being the most useless group in SEVENTEEN." With that, the newly reinstated unit leader stormed out of the room.

The remaining three glanced at each other with tired, exasperated eyes, "Yeah, someone should probably go calm him down. Do you think Seokmin-hyung can come down at such short notice?" Chan asked.

"He probably would, if someone's there to drive him. I mean, he'd still try to walk over, but, I mean..." Minghao shrugged, letting the sentence trail off.

Junhui got up, "I'll go, this isn't the first time he's thrown a tantrum." With that, the oldest dancer walked out of the room in the direction his leader stormed off towards.

"But it's the first time he's thrown one since becoming a unit leader." Minghao murmured softly. _Maybe this is a good thing..._

"Soonyoung! You want to talk this out?" Junhui called, hooking his arm around Soonyoung's neck affectionately.

"Nope."

"Aw, come on!" Junhui prompted, leaning his head against Soonyoung's shoulder, "You can tell me anything. I know I'm not Jihoon, but-"

"What does that guy have to do with anything?" Soonyoung snapped, but made no move that suggested he wanted Junhui off him.

"Well, um, you're best friends-"

"Not right now." Soonyoung sighed, "Look, I'm sorry. I'll admit it, I'm jealous of the others. They can do what they love and be acknowledged for it, meanwhile, there's us. Does anyone care about how what we love makes us special? No, we're only equivalent to background dancers." The younger male sighed, sitting down on a couch tiredly, "And now we're finally out of that shadow, you know?"

Junhui nodded slowly in understanding, "Do you regret not going to the Vocal Unit instead?"

At this, Soonyoung's eyes fluttered in a flustered manner as his head turned to look at Junhui straight on, "No, of course not! I love dancing..." Soonyoung stopped short, noticing the growing smug look on the taller male's face, "Hold up, this isn't one of those 'If you love it than you shouldn't care what others think' talk is it?"

"Good job, you got there all by yourself!" Junhui praised, ruffling Soonyoung's hair as the latter gave him an unappreciative glare.

"We're idols. We survive by caring what others think."

Junhui shrugged, "Then maybe we shouldn't be idols."

"...You really think that?" Soonyoung asked, eyes growing wide.

"Sure, occasionally. But then I think, do I really want to give this up? I mean, I love what I'm doing, I love working with the guys, and to be honest, I think I probably would have quit by now if it were with anybody else." Junhui explained, giving a small smile of reassurance, "When they assigned me to the Performance Unit, I also had doubts, like... is it because I'm not worthy enough for the other two units? But I ended up being proud of my position here. You're the best unit leader anyone could wish for, Minghao is amazing, and I feel like I'm the dongsaeng when I practice with Chan." The dancer gave a firm pat on Soonyoung back, "To be honest, I've never felt unappreciated, not by the members, anyway. We treat each other like family."

Soonyoung only nodded dumbly, allowing Junhui's words to hypnotize him into swaying from his original personal decision.

"I think it's time for us to return to that family, don't you?" Junhui paused a sec before continuing on in a slightly quieter tone, "I mean, to be honest, I didn't feel like I was being valued either, I mean, even I didn't think I deserved to be in the group." He confessed, "You're the unit leader and our choreographer, Minghao is good at b-boying, Chan is the best dancer in the group despite his position as the maknae, and I'm just... there."

"Jun-"

"But you know what? You guys have been such great family members to me, and even if I don't feel like I deserve it, I still really enjoy dancing and working with you all. Not just you guys, the entire group. SEVENTEEN is not SEVENTEEN without all thirteen members, right?" Junhui smiled, giving Soonyoung a good cuddle as Minghao followed suit from their original room along with Chan until it turned into a big unit hug.

"That's ironic."

"I know, but don't ruin the moment."

* * *

The "reunion" between Soonyoung and Jihoon was a little awkward, but was quickly resolved when Jihoon extended a hesitant arm to pat Soonyoung's awkwardly, which the latter reciprocated by bringing the former into a tight hug, crying loudly about how "SoonHoon was complete", no one quite knew what he meant aside from Junhui and Hansol who were giggling loudly in the background. Yes, giggling.

Meanwhile Seungcheol just looked on the side calmly, occasionally nodding when acknowledged.

"Yeaaah, the team is back!" Soonyoung pulled Seungcheol and Jihoon in for a small group hug among the leaders, "Feels good to be back."

"It better." Jihoon muttered, trying to pry off Soonyoung's tight hold.

"Classic SoonHoon." Junhui sighed, nudging Hansol who nodded in agreement.

Jihoon quirked an eyebrow at the two, his lips forming a hard line, "Should I be worried that my boyfriend ships me with someone else?"

"I see you taught him some vocabulary, nice one, hyung." Hansol whispered, returning Junhui's nudge from earlier.

"Oh, don't worry about it, Jun-hyung shared a good moment with Soonyoung-hyung earlier." Chan piped up, looking somewhat irked while Soonyoung raised up his arms to form an "X", waving it around wildly behind Jihoon at the youngest member.

"What?" The corner of Jihoon's mouth twitched, a glare shifting to Soonyoung, "We are no longer friends."

"Heyyyy bros before- my precious teammate." Soonyoung quickly said, patting both Jihoon and Junhui on the head.

Junhui only smiled awkwardly, curling his fingers around Jihoon's, "It was honestly nothing, he was just feeling down and I kind of cheered him up."

"Oh, like what Minghao was doing to you on the rooftop a while ago, right?" Mingyu added, apparently he hadn't let that matter go yet.

Jihoon glanced at Junhui briefly before shooting a single word dripping with venom, "Player."

"Homewrecker." Mingyu chirped, nodding heavily.

"Um, guys, I thought we kept it a rule to make our stage and actual personalities separate." Junhui began to sweat profusely, he had underestimated the amount of jealous types within the group.

Mingyu shrugged while Minghao whacked him over the head after having recovered from secondhand embarrassment.

"Sorry, I just... get a little uneasy." Jihoon mumbled, holding Junhui's hand tighter and bringing it closer to his side.

"Don't worry about it." Junhui smiled, kissing the shorter boy on the forehead.

"All right, playtime is over, onto the serious stuff." Jeonghan clapped his hands, "First things first, we need to bring their stuff in. Nothing much has changed, to be honest."

"I sure hope so..." Chan muttered, trudging upstairs with his belongings, passing by the practice room in the process, catching sight of the whiteboard with incredibly messy drafts of choreography, markings from the long hours the Performance Unit had spent planning every detailed movement, "Wow, I can't believe they kept those there."

"Of course." Jeonghan scoffed, placing the rest of Chan's luggage in his room, "Did you think we were going to completely erase what was left of you guys?"

* * *

Soonyoung sat in the middle of the practice room, staring into the mirror with a blank stare. On one hand, he was glad to be back, but on the other hand, he could still feel slight tension among the members, as though they were acting overly cautious around the Performance Unit, constantly making sure they're being included, and never forgetting to mention the choreography work behind each song.

"Well, this was something I missed." Seokmin smiled, walking into the practice room and plopping himself down next to Soonyoung, mimicking the latter's blank stare and making a fish face.

Soonyoung responded by pouting his lips and making an even goofier fish face. Seokmin grabbed the chance to give a peck on the dancer's lips, all the while looking proud of himself.

"Oh, you've improved at this game, huh?" Soonyoung smirked, but a tint of red was visible on his cheeks.

"I learn from the best." Seokmin playfully nudged Soonyoung in the shoulder, "So anyway, what's up?"

Soonyoung's face fell slightly, "Nothing, everything's great, the guys are great as usual, and you know... it's good to be SEVENTEEN again." The dancer rambled, looking away while fiddling with his fingers.

"Mhm, good, now try saying that again without the lies." Seokmin stated with a stern tone, but pinched both of Soonyoung's cheeks, forcing the latter to look him in the eyes.

Soonyoung pouted, rubbing the slightly aching spots on his cheeks, "I guess there's no hiding from you... I don't know, I feel like you guys have been acting as though you're skating on thin eggshells since we came back, and... well, none of us blame you guys for the whole fiasco, you know? It's true that I didn't feel appreciated, but not because of you guys. You're all amazing, really."

"And so are you, remember our first win? Personally I feel that it was largely due to your choreography, and it received a lot of praise on broadcasts and interviews. No one can replace your role." Seokmin placed a hand on Soonyoung's shoulder when no reply came, looking deep into his eyes with the uttermost sincerity he's always shown, "I know what you're thinking, and no, not even Jihoon-hyung. You were all chosen as your current positions for a reason. Without all our best dancers, our choreography would fall apart."

"Well... here's the thing. Even without good choreography, a group can still succeed with just their vocal and song production talent. I guess that's why people don't really view us as a 'must need' thing, you know?" Soonyoung shrugged, leaning against Seokmin in a slightly more relaxed manner.

"You're a must need for us though." Seokmin grinned, patting his boyfriend's head gently, "Don't you ever forget that. We don't ever want you to feel unappreciated again, so I guess we're all just a little too tense. Things can't go back to exactly how they were immediately, but we'll get there, I'm sure."

"Yeah... we can wait this out." Soonyoung sighed, snuggling closer.

* * *

Jihoon frowned as Junhui plopped himself down in Jihoon's chair, pulling the shorter boy between his legs and wrapping pretty much his entire body around him as the song producer worked on composing, "What exactly do you think you're doing?"

"Making up for lost time?"

"Shouldn't this be the other way around?" Jihoon scoffed, but nonetheless nestled himself closer to Junhui as the latter placed his chin on top of the former's head affectionately.

"Oh, I'm not opposed to that, but... it takes less effort for me-"

"Don't you go there."

"Of course, of course~" Junhui laughed, ruffling Jihoon's fluffy hair, holding him tighter, "You're a _grown man_."

Jihoon grumbled but didn't respond further to the comment besides, "You're holding too tight, I still need to work." Junhui did loosen his grip slightly at this to Jihoon's secret disappointment, since the Chinese man figured Jihoon would probably ban him from coming in during his "office hours" if he didn't play nice on this one.

"Hey, hyung, what do you want for lu- well, look at you guys all cozied up~" Mingyu cooed, walking into the room.

"You're banned." Jihoon replied immediately, not even bothering to turn around.

"But I literally just got out of my last ban!"

"Sucks to be you then." Jihoon turned to Minghao, who was standing behind his boyfriend with a look of utter embarrassment on his face, "Seriously, what do you see in this kid?"

"I'd like to say that everyone has their own charm points, but I can't." Minghao shrugged as Mingyu whined, "All right, we're just gonna order whatever then, see you guys later." With that, he exited the room, dragging his oversized puppy along in the process.

Jihoon watched until the door was completely closed and then turned to Junhui, tugging him down slightly, "So where were we?"

"You were in the middle of rejecting my love."

Jihoon rolled his eyes, planting light pecks along Junhui's jawline, "Fine, I'll make it up to you."

"Hyung, what do you guys want for lu- Oh. My. Go-" Chan's mouth was quickly covered by Hansol's hand before the sentence could be completed.

"...When will this nightmare end?"

Junhui shrugged, cuddling Jihoon closer, "I guess some things just don't change."

* * *

Junhui awoke in the middle of the night to hear creaking by the stairs, grabbing the first thing he could find on his right as an emergency weapon, he walked towards the source of the noise, quickly flipping up the light switch only to see a very shocked Seungkwan squinting at the sudden burst of light.

"Oh, it's just you." Junhui sighed, putting down his instinctively raised defensive position.

"Were you seriously going to throw your alarm clock at me?" Seungkwan raised an eyebrow, eyeing the "weapon" in Junhui's hands.

"Can't be picky if it's an emergency, right?"

Seungkwan scoffed, shrugging his shoulders in response, "You know wushu."

"Well, sometimes I forget." Junhui huffed, relaxing his shoulders and leaning slightly against the doorway, "So why are you up so late?"

"Uh..."

"Seungkwan, you forgot this-" Seungcheol stopped short with a shirt in his hand that from the looks of it, probably belonged to the young lead vocalist.

Junhui's eyes grew wide, looking from one member to the other, "...This better be a bad dream."

"It's not what it looks like! Seungcheol-hyung was giving me some advice as a leader, that's why we were in his room-"

"Then what's with the shirt?" Junhui arched an eyebrow, not buying the story one bit.

"Seungkwan spilled tea on his shirt, so I had it cleaned." Seungcheol explained as Seungkwan spluttered slightly on the side.

Junhui nodded slowly, deciding not to press on even though it had downed on him that the younger member was wearing Seungcheol's shirt and looks surprisingly comfortable in it. Well, members do wear each other's clothes often, but still...

"Stop squinting at me."

"Oh, sorry, Seungkwan." Junhui laughed, retreating back into the darkness of his room slightly, "Well, uh, you two have a good night and I'll see you in the morning." With that, the dancer quickly slipped into the shadows, sprinting as quietly as possible to Hansol's room and shaking the younger up, "Hansol! Hansol!"

"What?" Hansol grumbled, still groggy from sleep.

"Get up! 2Seung is real!" Junhui hissed, still shaking Hansol by the shoulders.

Hansol's eyes immediately flew open, sitting up from his bed, "Seriously?"

"Saw it with my own eyes, yup."

"Everything I've ever believed in has been a lie..."

"Come back to me, buddy." Junhui waved his hand in front of Hansol's vacant eyes, "By the way, that means you have to come eat Chinese food with me tomorrow since I won the bet."

"Everyone knows that's a crack pairing!"

"Uh, no, it's not, and stop struggling, I won this fair and square."

"Not yet, I have to see it with my own eyes as well, then I'll treat you to Chinese food." Hansol refused to give up the struggle.

"Fine, but you better not wear a blindfold just so you won't see it." Junhui watched as Hansol looked away slightly, pretending to be rolling back to sleep, "Oh my god, you were actually planning on doing that."

"Go away."

 


	13. You Take Me to the Top and

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junhui and Hansol go out of their way to make Seungcheol's and Seungkwan's lives difficult; Chan and Minghao attempt to give Jihoon a lesson on containing jealousy; overall just fluff, aside from the ominous ending.

"Whatever it is you guys are doing, stop it." Seungkwan griped, turning around in his chair to eat his breakfast in peace while Hansol and Junhui stare at him from the opposite end of the table, gazes darting from the lead vocalist to the group leader.

"You don't understand, the results of this observation will save my wallet."

"Or my stomach. You don't want your hyung to starve, do you?" Junhui whined teasingly, nudging Hansol in the shoulder gently. The latter only responded with a roll of his eyes before returning to stare intently for any "progress" between their targets.

Seungkwan squinted at them with suspicion, "What exactly are you betting on?"

"If I tell you will you do it in my favor?" Hansol immediately piped up.

"No."

"But we're best friends!"

"Still no."

"Meanie."

"You mean that?" Seungkwan pointed towards the living room where Wonwoo and Mingyu were sharing a couch, one watching TV while the other seemed bored by the soap opera series and was about to fall asleep, struggling to keep his eyes open, "Now that's love."

"No no no no, Wonwoo's _my_ best friend!" Junhui quickly rushed into the room, sitting promptly between Wonwoo and Mingyu, giving the youngest of the three a stink-eye much to the other's confusion.

Jihoon let out a quiet hiss, gripping his chopsticks tighter, staring daggers into the back of Junhui's head, "I swear he does this on purpose."

"I think he's made it perfectly clear that they're just friends..." Minghao grumbled from the side, covering a hand over his mouth to prevent the food from falling out, "I mean, even if Wonwoo likes him, he's been friend-zoned, and there's no getting out of that, man."

"I've always thought Wonwoo-hyung had a thing with his books." Chan shoved himself in-between Minghao and Jihoon with a new plateful of food, "Like, nobody spends that much time in the library if that weren't the case."

Minghao decided to ignore Chan's comment and reached around him to pat Jihoon on the shoulder, "They haven't been able to hang out in a while, you know, spare them for now."

"Fine, I'll give them another three days."

"Hyung, you're too possessive, you gotta give your lover space." Chan said while playing with the food on his plate.

"Last time I gave him space he got snatched away by another company, so." Jihoon retorted, "Don't talk as though you understand the trauma behind that."

"Man, I didn't know Jihoon-hyung would be the clingy one in their relationship..." Minghao murmured to Chan while the younger nodded vigorously, "No wonder Jun-hyung clings to Wonwoo-hyung more."

"What?"

"You know what? Maybe it's time for you to learn some self-control." Minghao stated, putting down his eating utensils, "See how chill Chan is with Hansol and Seungkwan sticking together?"

"What?"

It was Chan's turn to look alarmed as he snapped his head up to see Hansol squishing Seungkwan's round cheeks, babbling nonsense like "You're not allowed to date anyone, Boo Seungkwan! Especially not Seungcheol-hyung!"

"I said, _you see how chill Chan is_?"

"Huh? Uh, right, doesn't bother me at all! They've been friends since, like, forever, so, hahahahaha." Chan finished with obviously forced broken laughter, "And see how cool Minghao-hyung is with Mingyu-hyung being chummy with Wonwoo-hyung?"

"Yeah, well, he's a puppy so he needs constant attention..." Minghao's sentence trailed off slightly as he glanced towards the couch where Mingyu had now lied down across both Junhui's and Wonwoo's lap, looking extremely comfortable, "And you know, they're known for their loyalty..." his voice continued to waver as Wonwoo fed Mingyu grapes from the fruit bowl on the table.

"And Minghao-hyung, you're totally cool with that!" Chan cut in, shaking Minghao out of his trance.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm completely cool with that, like, so cool, I'm freezing."

"Get a jacket." Jihoon rolled his eyes, getting up to walk over to the couch trio, "Hey."

"Hey." The three replied simultaneously, none of them paid heed to Jihoon's quirked eyebrow towards Junhui's arm around Wonwoo and Wonwoo's free hand sitting casually on Junhui's knee.

"What's up?" Junhui asked cheerfully, obviously not the least bit aware of the tangled situation he was in.

"...Just here to tell you that those are plastic." Jihoon stated, pointing towards the fruit bowl.

Mingyu sat up immediately, staring at Wonwoo with disbelief, "Traitor!"

"No one asked you to lie on my lap, you're heavy." Wonwoo returned with a perfect deadpan expression.

The taller boy hopped up from the couch and ran to the dining room to complain about what a terrible human being Wonwoo was to Minghao.

"So, yeah, that's all." Jihoon shrugged, walking back to the table where Chan and Minghao were staring from, mouthing a "You're welcome" to the latter.

"Jihoonie, don't be upset! I'll, uh, I'll let you borrow my gaming console?" Junhui called, running after Jihoon and looping his arms around the younger affectionately as Chan's mouth dropped open. It seemed that Junhui was getting better at reading Jihoon's mixed signals.

"...Is there any chance you can also get rid of that?" Chan asked, pointing at Hansol and Seungkwan.

"Just watch the master."

* * *

"Soonyoung, you missed breakfast!" Jeonghan scolded, walking over to the seemingly stunned dancer who was standing at the mailbox with a pile of letters in hand, "Oh, you're checking the mail? Normally the staff goes through them first just in case, right? What's wrong? Did we finally get our first threatening letter?"

The Performance Unit leader held up an envelope, "You can put it that way."

Jeonghan took the envelope, scanning his eyes over the top half, "It's addressed to Junhui, right? It's in Mandarin though... from his family?"

"Yeah, I'm kind of rusty in Chinese, but from what I can make out, Jun received an amazing offer for a movie, and they're asking him to return to his hometown so he can be a part of it."

"What's so bad about that?"

"Well, he'll be out of the country for a while, and well... to be honest, I'm kind of scared that he won't come back."

Jeonghan was silent for a few moments before slapping a hand on Soonyoung's back, "I never thought I'd have to say this to you, but don't be so pessimistic. Jun would have left a long time ago if his will was that weak. We're all in the same boat here, none of us would just... never return after visiting our hometown, you know."

"I guess you're right, but... I mean, I guess I should trust him."

"Yeah, now put that letter back where you found it so the staff won't get mad." Jeonghan urged, stuffing the letter back into the mailbox as best as he could.

"There's more though. Minghao's parents also sent something about missing him, which I'm sure they do, and, uh, they also want him to return to China. You know, they saw the recent drama with the Performance Unit getting removed from SEVENTEEN, then moving back, etc, I guess they're just worried about where his career is taking him, you know?" Soonyoung shuffled the papers around, "Chan's parents are also worried, they want him to go home to be a normal student and such." The dancer continued as he flipped to another letter, "This is from my parents."

"And? What did they say?" Jeonghan asked slowly, a sinking feeling in his chest. _Please, not again._

"They mentioned coming home, but, uh, it's not because of the whole Performance Unit fiasco."

"Then?"

"Two words, marriage interview."

 


	14. Looking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeonghan and Soonyoung attempt to keep the marriage interview issue at a down-low, but certain people are catching on (as they always do).  
> Fluffy fluff fluff everywhere (hopefully).

"So are you going?" Jeonghan asked, entering Soonyoung's room so that they could talk in private regarding the issue, he waited as the younger member closed the door behind him securely after looking down the hallway a couple of times to make sure none of the members decided to turn in early.

"I'm not sure, I mean, I could always make up an excuse like work is too busy, or the mail never got to me-"

"Which it probably wouldn't have if you hadn't checked the mail yourself." Jeonghan added, nodding thoughtfully, "...Don't you think we should be a little more concerned about that?"

"Hyung."

"Okay, first things first." Jeonghan sighed, his arms crossing automatically by reflex, "Say that you do go, what are you going to tell the other members? What are you going to tell Seokmin?"

"I don't know, I don't want to lie to any of them... certainly not to my family either. I mean, they've never requested me to do anything and they supported me a lot when I told them my dream, so attending it is the least I can do." Soonyoung explained, tilting his head, "They also didn't send me any info on the girl I'm supposed to be meeting, so I honestly don't know what to expect."

Jeonghan nodded understandingly, patting him on the shoulder, "Let hyung think of something-"

"Please don't."

Before Jeonghan could protest, the two of them watched in horror as the doorknob turned, a light fluffy head popped in, a slight scowl on the intruder's face, "What are you guys doing in my room?"

"Sorry, Jihoonie!" Soonyoung immediately shot a look towards Jeonghan, warning him not to say anything, "It just looked so cozy, you know-"

"Get out."

"You're no fun, it's like only Seungkwan and Jun are allowed in here." Soonyoung whined, clinging to his best friend immaturely.

Jihoon raised an eyebrow at him, clearly not amused by the other's behavior, "Well, yeah. It's Seungkwan's room, and Jun's allowed in here for obvious reasons."

"Okay, gross." Soonyoung backed away slightly with a scrunched up face.

This time Jihoon cracked a small smile at his friend's funny expression, "But jokes aside, what exactly were you two doing together in here? I don't mean that in an accusing way." The main vocalist added, "You just seem like an odd duo to shut themselves in someone else's bedroom."

"Really? I think it makes sense, since we're both the joker type."

Jihoon rolled his eyes as Jeonghan nodded in agreement, "Just answer the question."

"We were just discussing about... uh..." Soonyoung glanced towards his hyung for help.

"A segment we could do at the next concert with the two of us, like maybe during the skit or whatever." Jeonghan piped in quickly, ruffling Soonyoung hair, "You know, thought it'd be an interesting combination."

Jihoon nodded slowly, it seemed like a pretty plausible reason, but he still looked hesitant to buy it, "Okay, well, Jun's coming over, s-"

"Out of here!" Soonyoung yelled immediately, zooming out with Jeonghan following close behind. ~~~~ ~~~~

* * *

Jihoon tucked himself comfortably under Junhui's arm, their sides pressing close together as they laid on the couch, just lazing around.

"I had a weird conversation with Soonyoung today." Jihoon said, not minding Junhui playing with his freshly washed hair.

"Was it about flying waffles? Because he's told me about that dream before."

"No, I wish it was his usual weirdness." Jihoon sighed, leaning back against Junhui's shoulder, "Jeonghan-hyung was there, too."

"It's odd to see those two together."

"That's exactly what I said." Jihoon prompted himself up as Junhui followed in a less willing manner, "I'm going to get the truth out of him if that's the last thing I do."

"I guess communication is always the answer according to Seungcheol-hyung..." Junhui nodded, watching as Jihoon hopped up from the couch, immediately zooming off to confront his best friend before Junhui had the chance to protest.

Wonwoo glanced over from his place on the sofa, "Aren't you going to follow him?"

Junhui shrugged, "Kinda think it's something between him and Soonyoung."

"Who and Soonyoung?" Seokmin asked, taking a seat on the couch arm casually.

"Jihoon and Soonyoung." Wonwoo replied, turning back to his book.

"Seokmin! You should try talking to him!" Junhui chirped, eyes shining with excitement, "Show us that sparkly couple love!"

"You're jealous, aren't you?"

"Damn straight, I can't believe Jihoon cut our cuddle time short for that human hamster."

"Hey now, he's just worried about his friend." Seokmin smiled gently, patting Junhui on the back, "They'll be fine."

"Seokmin," Junhui balanced himself on the couch by his knees, gripping the younger's shoulders tightly with a look of utmost seriousness, "you're too innocent for this world."

Wonwoo rolled his eyes, "Or maybe he's just acting like a mature human being."

"Jihoon! Get off me!" Soonyoung's screaming could be heard from upstairs, "Hey, that tickles... Ohgodnottheresomebodygethimoffmeplease-" the dancer's voice became less and less coherent due to whatever sort of torture Jihoon was putting him through, the three in the living room merely looked up at the ceiling curiously.

"Nah, he's right, you're too innocent for this world. Both of you are." Wonwoo stated finally, closing the book in his hands to head upstairs and give aid to Soonyoung.

"What do you think he meant by that?" Seokmin asked as he headed upstairs with Junhui just a little behind Wonwoo.

"Who knows, Wonwoo's always in his own world." Junhui scoffed.

* * *

Minghao put his arms around his plate protectively as Mingyu made puppy eyes from the other end of the table, "No matter how long you look at me like that, I'm not giving you any more food."

"But... Haooooo~" Mingyu whined, and Minghao swore he could picture him rolling around on the floor with his belly exposed, begging for affection.

"No means no."

"Except during sex, right?"

"Where the fuck did you learn that?" Minghao looked over at Hansol accusingly.

"It wasn't me, I swear." Hansol put up his hands defensively as Chan quirked an eyebrow at the older members.

"But more importantly~" Junhui looped an arm around Hansol, much to Chan's displeasure, and turned him towards the doorway just as Seungkwan walked in, "Hey, Seungkwan! I haven't seen Seungcheol-hyung lately, do you know where he is by any chance?" Junhui called, feeling Hansol squirm slightly.

"Oh, he mentioned something about working on rap lyrics and he'll be right down- Wait, this is a trap, isn't it?" Seungkwan crossed his arms at the dancer, "In that case, I don't know anything."

"Attaboy." Hansol croaked, trying to wriggle out of Junhui's iron grip.

"This bet is stupid. If it's Chinese food you want, just ask Minghao-hyung." Chan mumbled, turning his attention towards the plate of food in front of him instead.

"But then it won't be fun." Junhui replied, clearly enjoying teasing his dongsaengs.

Seokmin stood up as Soonyoung entered the room, looking even more exhausted than usual. "Soonyoung, are you okay? It's good to take a break now and then when you're stuck." He said soothingly, gently leading his boyfriend to a seat next to him.

"I might recover if you sing me something~" Soonyoung teased, diving into Seokmin's embrace, snuggling warmly against him, "I love listening to your voice the most~" he added, looking up at the lead vocalist with large round eyes.

"You better do as he says, or we're all going to throw-up, and I haven't even eaten yet." Seungkwan muttered, taking a seat far away from Hansol and Junhui.

Seokmin smiled and patted Soonyoung gently, "I guess if everyone else doesn't mind..."

"Oh, go ahead! Seokmin-hyung's singing is always welcomed." Chan said immediately, putting down his dining utensils to pay extra attention to the vocalist.

"You never say that about me." Hansol complained, finally shaking off Junhui and turning his attention back to his lover.

"You know damn well why."

"We _all_ know damn well why." Seungkwan rolled his eyes.

"Okay, everybody quiet, we're about to be graced by the angel's voice!" Soonyoung interrupted, looking up at Seokmin eagerly while a sneeze from Jeonghan could be heard from the kitchen.

And so Seokmin's solo impromptu concert began with the few members in the room as his audience, Soonyoung was especially into it as he listened to his boyfriend's voice intently with his eyes closed, swaying against the soothing melody of the song, constantly amazed by how much emotion Seokmin could seemingly effortlessly channel through his voice.

"I love you so much, you know that?" Soonyoung said at the end of the song.

Seokmin could only smile, his usual bright sunny smile, no, he was the manifestation of the sun itself.

* * *

"Jihoon, go away." Soonyoung groaned, turning over in his bed as he heard the door creak, "I'm not hiding anything, I swear."

"Uh huh." Jihoon turned on the flashlight in his hand, shining it down on Soonyoung in the most intimidating manner you can ever imagine, "You may have been able to fool everyone else, but not me."

"Jihoonie, turn the light off!" Junhui whined from his bed, also squinting from the strong ray of light in Jihoon's control.

Reluctantly, Jihoon put away the flashlight, then climbed into Junhui's bed, snuggling into the warmth by instinct, "This isn't over, Soonyoung."

"Jun, please sleep with me every night from now on."

"I got you, buddy."

"Why are you helping him?" Jihoon grumbled, jabbing Junhui in the side sharply, "Sometimes I wish you were more supportive like Seokmin."

"What does this have to do with Seokmin? Hahahahaha-" Soonyoung responded before Junhui could, leading to awkward silence from the lower bunk bed.

"Dude, is something up?" Junhui pushed himself off the bed and squinted up at Soonyoung, "Now I'm getting worried."

"Zzzz..."

"You can fake sleep all you want, but-"

"ZZZZZZ!!!!"

Junhui sighed, rolling back to his original position with his arms around Jihoon, "This is nice, at least. I mean, cuddling with you is always nice- I feel like I've said this before, but..."

Jihoon scoffed, "Dork."

"Sing me something to sleep?" Junhui batted his eyelashes, trying his best to mimic Mingyu's puppy eyes that seemed to work so well on Minghao.

"Okay, you don't have to make that face, it's not like I dislike singing." _To you._ Jihoon added in his mind, "What do you want to hear?"

"Do your part in Q&A." Junhui said, already yawning a little.

Jihoon nodded, singing his lines softly near Junhui's ear as the latter hummed along drowsily.

_You just look into my eyes_

_And tell me what's on your mind_

"You know what'd be cool? Chan rapping Hansol's part, and completely slaying it." Junhui smiled, eyes barely open now, "I can just picture Hansol's shocked face right now."

"I don't think he'd be that shocked, I mean, he'd probably be proud beyond compare. But instead of that, I'm much more curious about how you'd sound singing Ailee-sunbaenim's part. It'd be like, " Jihoon chuckled softly, threading his fingers between Junhui's, " _Our Q &A._"

"All right, I admit it!" Soonyoung suddenly bolted up from his bed, "Just stop with the pillow talk!"

"Um, that wasn't pillow talk-"

"I'm going home this weekend for a marriage interview, there!" Almost as sudden as he had bolted up, Soonyoung rolled back to sleep, his blanket wrapped tightly around him as his hands trembled slightly from the outburst.

There was a moment of silence as Junhui and Jihoon processed the confession in their heads, then another long stretch of silence followed as they attempted to get over the initial shock Soonyoung's words brought.

Slowly, Junhui slid out of his bed and into Soonyoung's, climbing over the latter's body so that he was lying down on his right. Meanwhile, Jihoon followed suit, lying down on Soonyoung's left so that their main choreographer was sandwiched between them snugly.

"It's no use trying to change my mind-"

"Shh, you need this." Jihoon mumbled, holding his best friend's arm warmly.

 

 


	15. I Promise Myself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jihoon and Soonyoung travel back to the latter's hometown for the interview early in the morning without waking up the other members. The house seemed abnormally quiet when they left though... too quiet.  
> The hyungs give different advice to Junhui on how to proceed with his relationship with Jihoon, and just like, fluff.

"You ready?" Jihoon asked, waiting at the doorway as Soonyoung carried his luggage down, careful not to make the stairs creak. He didn't have to pack a lot since he wasn't planning on staying for long (they still had work to do after all), and most of his luggage was made up with souvenirs he hadn't sent back home for his parents.

"Yeah, I think I am..." Soonyoung replied, nearly tripping over his own feet, which Jihoon found funny considering the fact that Soonyoung was supposed to be one of the best (if not _the_ best) dancer in the group, yet he oddly seemed to lack dexterity when he's not dancing.

As soon as Soonyoung got outside, Jihoon closed the door behind them, careful not to slam it, of course. Wouldn't want any of the members to wake up, it was hard enough getting Junhui to go back to sleep this morning when the latter insisted that he came along.

Jihoon climbed into the back of the taxi next to Soonyoung after practically shoving his friend in so that they wouldn't waste time and increase the chances of getting caught. "You know, I appreciate you coming along." Soonyoung said after a while of just sitting in silence.

"What are friends for..." Jihoon grumbled, reluctantly admitting Soonyoung as a friend, forgetting about his total breakdown during the Performance Unit's special stage mini-fanmeet.

Soonyoung showed his usual wide grin, putting an arm around Jihoon and pulling him close, "Thanks, you're the best, Jihoonie!"

Jihoon groaned (mostly from having the seatbelt dig into his neck from the action), but didn't resist the skinship.

The rest of the road trip was filled with silence with Soonyoung's occasional comment about the scenery and Jihoon replying with grunts, as per usual, but neither really minded. Finally, the car pulled up in front of Soonyoung's house, and the two exited the vehicle quickly. If it were any other day, Soonyoung would have been thrilled to be home, but given the circumstances, Soonyoung could only feel heaviness in his heart.

Jihoon nudged him gently from the back, urging him to go in and get it over with so they can return to the group and act as though nothing's happened.

Slowly, Soonyoung took out his house key which he hadn't been able to use for the past few _years_ , and turned the lock...

"SURPR-"

"SURPRISE!"

"I thought we agreed to shout it on three, Mingyu!" Seungcheol scolded as the other members groaned in disappointment at the young rapper's premature yell.

"I couldn't help it..." Mingyu pouted, hiding behind Minghao as the older members glared daggers at him, ignoring Soonyoung, who was obviously surprised anyway.

"Why are you guys here?" Soonyoung gaped, still in so much shock that he hardly noticed his parents coming up behind him with a cake, smiling from ear-to-ear.

Jihoon patted him on the shoulder as the members revealed his parents, setting the cake on the table of the dining room, "Be happy, buddy."

Soonyoung just stared, wondering what the heck Jihoon was talking about, until he refocused his gaze on the cake. On the top, using seemingly homemade icing to form neat cursive writing were the words, "Will You Marry Me?" and then Seokmin's beaming face as he came through the crowd, holding a bouquet of flowers and what Soonyoung could only assume to be a ring box, it was very much straight out of a movie, except it wasn't.

"What the- what-"

"I told you we'd talk about it, right?" Seokmin smiled, coming over to take Soonyoung's hand in his as he got down on one knee, meanwhile some of the younger members made "ooo"s and "awwww"s receiving death glares from the older members in the process, "I know it's written on the cake already, but I still want to say it myself. Well, before that-

_I want to say hello_

_I want to say hello_

_I'm in love with you..._ " As always, Seokmin effortlessly broke into song and slayed the part, even though it was only three lines, it still left Soonyoung in a trance as he just stared with his mouth open at his partner, "Kwon Soonyoung, will you marry me?"

Completely out of character, Soonyoung squeaked, "Yes..." then finally regaining his usual energy, he leaped into Seokmin's awaiting arms, sending both of them spinning into the members (who thankfully caught them), "YES!!! But when did you plan all this?"

"While you guys were 'away', I met with your parents and figured... what better location to do this, right? And with all our close friends as witnesses." Seokmin grinned, "So do I win this time?"

"Shut up, you." Soonyoung's smile was pretty much imprinted completely onto his face now, there was no way to hide it now.

Jihoon made his way back into the crowd, looking around for Junhui, but a pair of arms caught him first, "Hey~ good job leading Soonyoung here without revealing the surprise!"

"Of course, I'm not you." Jihoon rolled his eyes, but stepped closer to Junhui so that the latter could put his arms around him in a more comfortable position.

After a flurry of congratulations to the officially engaged couple, the celebration proceeded as the members dug into the cake, giving Soonyoung space to catch up with his family.

Jihoon watched as Mingyu attempted to clean up the ring of frosting around Minghao's mouth with a napkin, only to make a bigger mess. Instead of getting mad, Minghao simply rolled his eyes, cleaning up the frosting himself and giving Mingyu a pat on the cheek for trying. A while ago, he couldn't understand how couples like them could openly show their affection for each other that easily with such simple gestures, but lately he's been getting more and more comfortable with PDA as well, even though Junhui's the one who initiates it 90% of the time. Still, it was funny how easy a person can change for someone they love.

"Jihoon-hyung is glaring at us, what do I do?" Mingyu muttered in Minghao's ear.

"He's not glaring, that's his normal gaze. Don't be so nervous."

Junhui sat down next to Jihoon, holding out a slice of cake and a cup of cola for him, "For my little prince."

Jihoon rolled his eyes but took the food gratefully, they ate in silence, just observing and listening to the conversations around them.

Chan was engaged in a group conversation with Wonwoo and Seokmin, looking extremely hyped up and happy for Seokmin and Soonyoung while Wonwoo occasionally nodded in agreement to whatever Chan was rambling. Hansol stood on the side, beaming, casually sharing the same cup as Chan. Junhui wondered if he and Jihoon could one day become like that as well, casually showing their closeness with seemingly small actions. With time, they'll probably eventually get there.

"You know, seeing what just happened, it kind of gets you thinking, doesn't it-"

"Don't." Jihoon suddenly got up, leaving his spot beside Junhui to talk with Jeonghan, Seungcheol, and Seungkwan.

Junhui blinked, that was a pretty passive aggressive reaction. Even though it wasn't like they've never talked about taking a further step, but Jihoon's never brought it up again, and Junhui wondered if he was getting tired of it already or maybe he just wasn't ready, hopefully it was the latter.

Jihoon's empty spot was eventually filled by Jisoo, "Something up?"

"Yeah... I know we've been dating for a while, but it's still so hard to read Jihoon sometimes..." Junhui sighed, taking a sip of his soda.

"Well, you know Jihoon. Besides, you know how to read him better than most of us, it's proof of your closeness." Jisoo soothed, patting Junhui on the shoulder.

"I know that, but... Maybe I'm just too hotheaded." Junhui smiled bashfully.

Jisoo tilted his head to the side thoughtfully, "Maybe Jihoon feels jealous of Soonyoung and Seokmin? If Jihoon were planning on proposing to you, it definitely wouldn't be in front of a crowd, I guess maybe he's scared of living down your expectations?"

"That does sound likely, but... I wish he wouldn't worry about things like that." Junhui mumbled, taking another sip of his drink, "Being in a relationship is hard... But, hyung, you're a good advisor."

"Well, you're not the first person today actually-" Jisoo was suddenly dragged away by Seungkwan before Junhui could ask him for further details.

Once Jisoo was gone, Seungcheol took a seat next to Junhui, "What were you and Jisoo talking about?" There was a look of slight panic in his eyes, but his face remained calm overall.

Junhui shook his head, "Just about my stalemate relationship with Jihoon..."

"Well, at least you're going steady." Seungcheol said, Junhui noted that his voice sounded much more relaxed than when he first approached him, "Isn't that good enough?"

"I'm just worried that maybe we don't expect the same things out of this relationship... Maybe I'm the only one considering our future, that kind of thing..." Junhui replied sullenly, leaning against Seungcheol's shoulder comfortably. As expected, Seungcheol was the best to lean on, both in terms of a mental support and literally.

Jeonghan came over to sit on Junhui's other side, "You could always sit down and have a talk over it. Communication is key."

"That's true..." Junhui noticed a pair of shoes stop in front of him and looked up to see Jihoon had come back from whatever he was doing after his conversation with the others.

Jihoon blinked down at the trio, seemingly interested in what they were talking about as he tilted his head to the side in the way that would make people think he was a harmless little fairy that needed protection.

"Oh, sorry for taking your seat." Seungcheol said, getting up quickly along with Jeonghan, "Junhui just seemed a little lost by himself."

"It's 'kay." Jihoon replied curtly, resuming his place next to Junhui and taking a huge gulp of cola, his face looking less than amused.

Junhui nudged Jihoon gently, "It was just a friendly gesture."

"Or it was a perfect allegory, I'm not leaving your side for the rest of the party."

Junhui looked at Jihoon's disgruntled expression as the latter continued to sip on his favorite beverage, he couldn't help letting out an amused laugh, guess he was worried about nothing.

"What?" Jihoon scowled.

"Nothing~ Just thinking about how cute you are~" Junhui replied, casually scooping Jihoon up and sitting him between his legs as they sat on the floor.

Jihoon made a face but didn't argue. Junhui was probably the only member who could get away with calling him by that adjective, and Junhui was going to take full advantage of that privilege.

* * *

Once they got back, Soonyoung gave out the letters to his fellow dancers, "Just thought you guys had the right to know."

The three read each of their letters silently, the practice room fell into a dead silence with just the low humming of the AC. Soonyoung paced around in front of the mirror waiting for some sort of reaction from the three.

"Thanks for delivering these to us, Soonyoung-hyung." Minghao smiled, putting away his letter as the other two followed suit.

Soonyoung blinked, he expected something more dramatic, and he's been rehearsing his leader's encouragement speech for a while now just for this moment. He couldn't help feeling just a little disappointed by their calm reaction.

"There's no way we're going back home now, we just returned. No one's going to make us move again." Junhui shrugged, easily tossing away the offer.

"I'll just write back to my parents assuring them everything's okay, it's simple." Chan added.

"...You guys just won't let me have my moment, huh?" Soonyoung pretended to pout.

"You already had a huge one on the weekends." Minghao laughed, ruffling Soonyoung's hair, "Plus you and Seokmin have been flashing those rings in our faces since you got back, so you owe us. Still happy for you guys though."

Junhui and Chan nodded in agreement as Soonyoung laughed sheepishly.

"But onto the more serious stuff, what exactly should we do for the new unit performance?" Soonyoung said, turning his attention towards the messy whiteboard. After the news of the Performance Unit's official return reached the company's partners, showcase offers suddenly flooded them requesting for a show that featured all the units individually, so they were all pretty busy with it. None of the unit leaders have talked to each other about their unit's plans either since they wanted them to be completely spontaneous.

Unfortunately the secrecy of the entire thing gave bad reminders to the Performance Unit in particular, so they were feeling a little more uncomfortable than the others about it. If they had come up with anything, Soonyoung would have spilled the beans to Seungcheol and Jihoon already, but thankfully (or not) they hadn't drawn up anything likely to be put into the official show yet.

"Well... we could have Chan and I rap, you and Jun-hyung would be the main vocalists, as for the choreography... it needs to be... refreshing." Minghao said, furrowing his brow slightly in concentration, "Something we haven't done before..."

"How about a dance battle concept? Minghao and I could be on one team, and Jun and Chan on the other." Soonyoung said, automatically getting into position as the others followed, their eyes lightening up slightly at the suggestion.

"The playlist of songs should be made up of different genres so the audience can see different sides to each of us." Junhui added, "Or Minghao would just dominate everything with his b-boying."

"Not my fault I have more experience in dance battles." Minghao shrugged, but an obviously proud look was on his face.

"There should be elements of humor in it as well." Soonyoung said, tilting his head to the side.

The group proceeded to talk about the performance with enthusiasm, at least this was different from the situation before. All they felt was pressure, but this time they were actually excited about the show. Soonyoung had to admit that it felt nice, and it was largely due to the fact that they'd be showing off in front of the other units on friendly grounds.

"There's really no better place to be than here, huh?"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the troll angst.


	16. I Can't Take It No More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While each unit is busy with their own thing, the team barely has time to meet as one, causing anxiety to rise from certain people.  
> On the other hand, Minghao, Mingyu, Junhui and Jihoon watch a couple pre-debut videos together just for fluff.  
> Junhui has bonding time with Hansol, who apparently brings shocking news...

Chan watched as Junhui practiced his part of the choreography, as always, there seemed to be a "flow" in Junhui's body movements, each choreography point smoothly connected together, and his facial expressions were on point, again, as always. He was in top form today, so was Soonyoung. That was understandable, anyone would want to look the best in front of the people whose opinions mattered the most to them. Minghao seemed to view it as a more casual setting so he seemed pretty cool about it, but why can't Chan get into it...?

"How was that?" Junhui asked, turning around to look at Chan, sweat soaking through the back of his shirt.

"Huh? Oh, it was perfect, you're really taking this to a different level, hyung!" Chan replied, trying to look excited.

Taking a seat down next to the maknae, Junhui wiped off the sweat practically pouring down from his forehead and arched an eyebrow at the younger boy, "Something up? You're usually the most passionate when it comes to showing off dance moves."

"I don't know, I think I'm just a little tired... it's getting late after all." Chan said, even though he knew very well what was up, and clearly Junhui wasn't buying it, "All right, to be honest... we haven't been able to meet up as a group for a while, and it's making me uneasy, like the whole thing is just repeating again, what if the company is planning something behind our backs again? Doesn't it bother any of you?"

Junhui blinked slowly, putting a gentle hand on Chan's head, "Of course it does, but somehow... I feel like it's going to be fine this time."

Chan looked at Junhui as the latter smiled in an encouraging manner at his dongsaeng, "...You've become stronger, Jun-hyung."

"Haha, you think so? I do, too!"

"Please don't bring your narcissist character backstage..."

At that time, Junhui didn't think much of their conversation and simply viewed it as Chan being worried due to the Performance Unit's past crisis, he didn't know the poor kid was going through a much bigger emotional episode until later that day.

* * *

"Oh wow, everyone looked so... young. I can't believe you guys were teenagers here, you all looked like 7-year-olds." Minghao commented as they watched a couple of pre-debut videos on Mingyu's laptop, "You also acted like 7-year-olds."

"I know, those were dark days." Jihoon grumbled, burying his face into his knees as they got to the "paper kissing game" part, "Let's skip this part."

"Man, Jun-hyung's voice sounded so messed up, I almost forgot about that period." Mingyu laughed as Junhui's lisping came on.

"I had braces, okay?" Junhui rolled his eyes, "See? It got better."

"Yeah, he tricked everyone into thinking he was some 'quiet handsome character', but he actually isn't quiet at all."

"But I'm handsome, right?"

"Please." Jihoon rolled his eyes but didn't say anything else as Junhui cuddled him affectionately from behind. It was slightly uncomfortable with the four of them squeezing into one sofa, especially when one of them was Mingyu, but Jihoon wasn't complaining if he got to sneak some cuddle time with Junhui.

The four continued to watch as the screen showed their younger selves wrestling against one another on the floor, "I can't believe we did that." Jihoon facepalmed for the nth time since starting the marathon, at this point he wasn't even paying attention anymore.

"Hm, we hardly had any interaction at all." Junhui noted, resting his chin on top of Jihoon's head.

"Yeah, we weren't exactly close."

"We were though!" Mingyu piped up, his head resting on Minghao's lap.

"Sure." Jihoon replied coolly, not even glancing at him.

Minghao chuckled as Mingyu whined, insisting that they were, but Minghao shouldn't feel jealous and other silly things like that. "Who were you close to, Jun-hyung?"

"Uh, let's see... aside from Mingming, probably Soonyoung, Jeonghan-hyung, and Joshua-hyung. I grew closer to Wonwoo and Hansol a little later."

Minghao nodded, tilting his head to the side, "Strange how relationships can change so drastically within just a few years. Not that you guys aren't close now, but the friend groups are... you know, different. We're all close as a whole though. Really tight, in fact. It's pretty amazing."

"Yeah..." Jihoon mused, resting his head in the crook of Junhui's neck comfortably.

They continued to watch, until Mingyu's eyes started to droop, and Jihoon had gone completely limp against Junhui's chest. Suddenly, they heard knocking at the door.

"I'll get it." Junhui said, carefully putting Jihoon down on the cushion before heading to the door, "Hansol?" There was slight surprise in his voice as he looked at the younger boy, he didn't seem like the type to want to talk at such a late hour, especially since he was one of the heavier sleepers in the group.

"Hey, hyung, I need some advice." Hansol glanced behind Junhui's shoulder in a wary manner, even Junhui started to tense up. What was up now?

"Okay," Junhui closed the door behind him and went a little further down the hall so that they weren't within earshot of the other three inside Mingyu's room, "what's wrong?"

Hansol sighed, leaning against the door tiredly, "It's about Chan..."

"Please tell me you still love him and I'm not going to be giving you advice on how to break up with him because I honestly have no idea."

"No, no..." Hansol cracked a slight smile at this, "It's not that at all... it's just, we've been talking about what our next step would be for our relationship, and, well..."

"You're getting married?"

"No!" Hansol laughed, patting Junhui on the shoulder, "Don't worry, nothing like that."

"Then what is it?!" Junhui quickly lowered his tone in-between his sentence as his voice echoed slightly down the hallway, "I mean, then what is it?"

"We're moving out."

It was Junhui's turn to lean against the wall, more like, crashed into it. His body knocked against the hard surface heavily as he stared at Hansol with his jaw open. He couldn't believe the two youngest members would be the first one to leave the nest, were they even allowed to do that?

"Did you talk to the manager about it already?"

"Well, no... actually, I'm getting cold feet about it, that's why I need your advice, hyung." Hansol said, sighing in slight relief that Junhui didn't immediately run to Seungcheol and tell on them.

Junhui nodded slowly, trying to take the shocking news in, "So you're uncertain about the whole 'moving in with Chan' thing." He repeated dumbly. It doesn't hurt to make extra sure what the situation was before actually dealing with it, it's called stalling.

"Yeah, I mean, I suggested that maybe we start small, like, share the same room first, but then Chan was like... 'We've already lived together in the same place for more than 4 years, we'll just be doing the same somewhere else without the other eleven dudes', and to be honest, he had a point."

"Then what specifically are you unsure about?" Junhui asked, rubbing his temple tiredly, wondering if he could somehow put this responsibility on someone else. It wasn't like he didn't want to help his favorite dongsaeng, but he probably wasn't the right person for the job. Someone more familiar with relationships should be giving advice... no wait, Chan and Hansol are the most long-standing couple so far. Yeah, they're out of luck.

"Maybe, um... if we live together, alone, a lot of things that we don't like about each other will eventually turn up, or we'll get bored of each other easily because we'd be constantly around each other."

"You'll get bored of Chan?"

"No, of course not!" Hansol stared at Junhui like he was crazy.

"So what makes you think Chan will get bored of you?"

"He said I'm too clingy."

"You are, I agree." Junhui answered immediately, then regretted it when he saw Hansol's face fall even further, "But, hey, I can say the same for Chan, you should hear what everyone has to complain about you two everyday. You guys are just, inseparatable."

Hansol scratched the back of his head sheepishly, wondering if he should be taking that as a compliment or not.

"To be honest, I kind of envy that. You've managed to come this far together, I think you guys will be able to hold out for a little longer- I mean, for as long as you want." Junhui scowled, that didn't sound right either. It was way too late in the day for Korean lessons.

Hansol seemed satisfied with the answer though as his lips stretched into a smile across his face, "Thanks, I knew you'd be the most supportive."

"Wait, wait, I didn't I say I support it-" Junhui called, but Hansol had already left to where Junhui hoped was his own bedroom instead of Chan's, or they'd probably move out tonight.

However, Junhui's worry was quickly quelled when he noticed a familiar figure standing in front of Mingyu's door when he made it back, "Chan?"

"Jun-hyung!" Chan quickly made little hops towards him, "Do you have time to talk?"

Junhui knew it wasn't going to be good, but he couldn't say no, "Yes..." he watched as Chan looked around nervously, his actions almost completely identical to Hansol's earlier, "Let me guess, is it about your whole moving out thing with Hansol?" Junhui sighed, sitting down on the floor, his back leaning against the wall as he gestured for Chan to do the same. This was probably going to take a while.

"He told you? Well, yeah, something like that..."

"Are you getting cold feet, too?"

"Kind of... Maybe we got into the plan a little too hastily. I mean, we haven't been able to have a lot of quality time together lately because of the showcase, and admittedly, I was getting kind of desperate, so I made the suggestion, but now I just wonder... maybe we got into the relationship itself too soon."

Junhui slowly turned to look at the maknae, prompting himself up slightly as he looked at the young dancer.

This was going to take more than just a while.


	17. Ay Man Thumbs Up Get It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The units decide to go shopping for their costumes, they didn't think they'd all choose the same store to go to though.

Junhui sighed, leaning against the wall as Chan remained silent next to him, he wondered if the younger boy had fallen asleep in that position. Throughout the past hour, Junhui had basically repeated words he had said to Hansol, and tried to comfort the younger boy as best as he could, but in the end, he wasn't quite sure if he was the right person to go to for this sort of talk, and it wasn't like he knew what the future holds either. It's all up to fate, if that's what you believe.

"...I understand it's very irresponsible of me to drag you into this, Jun-hyung, I'm sorry." Chan suddenly spoke, turning towards Junhui apologetically.

"What are you talking about? We're family, we share our problems!" Junhui insisted, his arm tightened around the youngest dancer's shoulders warmly, "If one of us is unhappy, all of us will be, so it's better to solve everything together." He paused slightly, "I mean, this problem is probably something you two will ultimately solve on your own, but I'm sure the rest of us are all happy to show support if you ever need it."

Chan grinned genuinely for the first time that night, which somehow made Junhui feel more than just very accomplished, "Thank you, Jun-hyung. I'll talk it over with Hansol, so don't tell the other members about it... they'll probably make a fuss, especially Jeonghan-hyung and Seungkwan-hyung."

"Yeah, you're right about that." Junhui laughed, patting Chan affectionately on the back before withdrawing his arm. "I'll walk you back to your room."

"I'm not that much of a kid." Chan scoffed, but allowed Junhui to lead him back nonetheless.

After safely escorting Chan back, Junhui returned to where the other three were still curled up in, pretty much all sound asleep, besides Jihoon. The main vocalist had his eyes open, staring blankly at the laptop still open on Mingyu's desk, his knees tucked against his chest as he tried his best to take up as little space as possible on the couch, which wasn't all that hard for him to be honest.

"Jihoon?" Junhui prompted, placing a hand on the back of the sofa.

Jihoon immediately turned at the sound of Junhui's voice, his shoulders visibly relaxed upon seeing the dancer, "Hey. You were out there for a long time."

"But I'm back now, right?" Junhui smiled, slipping into the space between Jihoon and Minghao, and wrapping an arm around Jihoon securely. The latter had become significantly less jumpy and paranoid about Junhui not being in his sight, but as much as he tried to hide it, Junhui could always catch these little actions that suggested he wasn't entirely over the whole group separation fiasco. That was expected though, everyone else was probably just as paranoid, Soonyoung definitely just recently got over it, and he probably wouldn't have without Seokmin's support.

"Yeah, you are." Jihoon sighed, leaning into Junhui's embrace, "You're back."

* * *

"You guys ready?" Jeonghan turned towards the rest of the Vocal Unit, standing just a couple inches away from the department store door, one more step and the automatic doors would open, and all hell may or may not break out depending on how well they had managed to put on their disguise.

The other four, heavily clothed with sunglasses, hats, and face-masks, nodded seriously. They were dying under the heat, but they had to get through this if they wanted to get the perfect costumes for their unit showcase. You would think that the company had everything all planned out, but no, the manager told them since they were coming up with their own concepts anyway, they should just go ahead and design their own costumes as well.

It wasn't too bad for the designing aspect, but when it got down to getting out and buying the supplies without attracting attention, now that was the challenge.

They all sucked in a breath audibly as Jeonghan took a step forward, and the doors opened. But surprisingly enough, there weren't many people out and about at all, or maybe it was just this floor and they purposely chose a very secluded entrance.

"Phew, I guess we're lucky." Seungkwan sighed, letting his breath out and relaxing his shoulders as they made their way towards the nearest clothing shop, "This doesn't seem bad at all- ow, Seokmin, stop jabbing me, what is it?"

Seokmin pointed upwards towards the second floor where cameras and cellphones were flashing everywhere, and a giant crowd was pushing up against the glass railings in one corner with what appears to be a shop that sold Western-style punk rock clothing. It wasn't really Seungkwan's thing, but if that's what people liked these days?

"What about it?"

"No, look at _who_ they're taking pictures of." Seokmin urged, turning Seungkwan by the shoulders roughly, jabbing a finger towards four very troubled figures stuck in the corner thanks to the crowd.

Squinting, Seungkwan slowly made out each of the Hip Hop Unit members, and started to laugh, "Are they buying _chokers_?!"

"Seungkwan, it's not funny, it's sad." Jisoo tried to defend (or not) his fellow band members.

"Well, thanks to them we can shop in peace." Jeonghan said, not even giving his troubled bandmates a second glance as he proceeded to dive into the shelves and shelves of clothing on sale.

The Vocal Unit had always been depicted as the "sweetest" unit, so they were planning on changing the image up a little this time around. They were still going to be the "sweet boyfriend" types, but just a little more "manly" this time. So instead of their usual "high school first love" image, they were going for a more "mature" impact to show how much more reliable they've become and they're no longer as lost, innocent, and fluffy as before.

Who are we kidding though?

"Jeonghan-hyung, Jeonghan-hyung, what about this?" Seungkwan asked, hopping up and down with an oversized sweater, "I heard that girls find sweater paws adorable!"

"We're not trying to be adorable, Seungkwan, we're trying to be cool and sweet at the same time." Jeonghan sighed, the guys just weren't getting it.

"Oh, right! Cool and sweet, cool and sweet..." Seungkwan wandered off to a different aisle while Jeonghan shook his head, wondering if the others would really be fine shopping on their own. Of course not, but he'll have to deal with it later.

Judging by what the Hip Hop Unit was going for, they seemed to be sticking with their usual concept. Well, it's not like they really had a choice... but they seemed to be going more... "hardcore", this time, if what Seungkwan observed was true.

Jihoon looked through the piles and piles of clothes, his eyes becoming slightly dizzy by all the different colors and fabrics, none of them seemed to catch his eye or suited what he would call "cool and sweet". Not to mention he couldn't even see half of them properly thanks to his height limit, and he sure as hell wasn't going to ask one of the others for help.

Just when he was about to head to a different store instead, something from across the room finally caught his eye. Too bad it wasn't a piece of clothing, it was a person.

Ah, yes, he was the very embodiment of a cool and sweet boyfriend, maybe in a casual setting, that is. It certainly wouldn't work as a costume on stage, but that image was a perfect reference. A slightly oversized grey hoodie halfway zipped, hands tucked casually in his pockets, a cap pulled lowly over his head and earphones loosely hanging off around his neck, his gaze focused while one finger tapped his bottom lip thoughtfully- Wait.

"Jun?"

"Jihoon?"

Junhui was visibly just as startled as Jihoon was, and the latter could only hope to any deity that Junhui hadn't caught him staring.

"What are you guys doing here?" Junhui smiled, noticing Jeonghan and Jisoo rummaging around in the aisle behind Jihoon.

"The real question is, what are you doing here without even a mask on? Aren't you scared of getting caught?" Jihoon dodged the question, it wouldn't be fun if the other units knew their concept plan so early in.

Junhui shrugged, glancing towards the extremely crowded floor above them, "We went out after those four already arrived, so we knew they would have attracted the crowd away by the time we got here. It's a strategy Minghao and Chan thought up."

Jihoon felt cold sweat starting to form on his forehead at this. Minghao and Chan were sure quick to feed their boyfriends to the wolves. If it were him, he would have gotten so pissed-

"Are you guys buying your costumes here?" Junhui prompted, continuing his browsing, making shorter steps so that Jihoon could keep up (it was a habit of his that Jihoon felt openly annoyed but secretly grateful for).

"Uh, kind of. We're just looking around right now." Jihoon mumbled, pretending that he wasn't taking larger steps to match Junhui's pace, "What about you guys? More like, where is the rest of your unit?"

The taller male paused to look over his shoulder to the store across from them, "I think Soonyoung is over there, Minghao and Chan were sent to the second floor. Don't worry, they're in much heavier disguise than us."

"You 'think' Soonyoung is over there." Jihoon repeated, quirking an eyebrow, "It sounds like you don't really care less. You guys better not have gotten into a fight or something."

Junhui laughed, patting Jihoon on the head (ignoring the obviously annoyed growl from the shorter boy), "Nothing like that. Soonyoung knows how to take care of himself, so I don't have to worry too much." He said that, but Jihoon observed Junhui periodically looking back towards the suspected store to check if he could catch a glimpse of his unit leader just in case. He always turned back to his browsing with a relieved sigh.

"So, um, what is your concept?" Jihoon ventured, since he's been distracted from his own costume hunt anyway, might as well get something out of it.

"Hm?" Junhui hummed nonchalantly as he swept his gaze over the top shelves, "It's no fun if I tell you now."

Of course it wasn't going to be that easy, huh? "I guess I overestimated your love for me."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Junhui looked alarmed as he turned to face Jihoon.

"Nothing, don't mind it." Jihoon shrugged and turned away. _Good, he took the bait._

"Jihoon, come on!" It was Junhui's turn to follow after Jihoon as the latter began to go down the next aisle, pretending to be very immersed in the clothing there even though they still seemed all very distasteful to him, "Jihoon, you know I love you, right~?" Junhui continued to coax, completely forgetting his original task.

"I wonder." Jihoon replied curtly.

"Jihoonie~!" Junhui whined childishly, but it didn't seem like he was giving in either. Soonyoung had probably prepared him for this.

While Jihoon and Junhui continued their little one-sided mind game, Chan and Minghao were doing their work dutifully as the maknae line of the Performance Unit. Or they would be if the camera shutters hadn't bothered them so much.

"Why hasn't security done anything about this?" Chan muttered, looking over a hanger to where Hansol, Mingyu, Wonwoo, and Seungcheol were still pitifully trapped in.

"Who knows?" Minghao shrugged, "But we don't have time to worry about them, let's just grab some clothes and go."

"You mean grab some clothes, pay, _and then_ go." Chan corrected.

"Sure, why not. My way would have been faster-"

"Minghao-hyung!"

"I was joking!"

Minghao and Chan argued with hushed voices as they took whatever seemed suitable for their concept and headed towards the cashier. They could work out the details later with the rest of the group. Even if they couldn't use the clothes they bought as their costume, they could always wrap them up in a pretty box with a bow and pass it off to someone else as a birthday present.

They met up with Soonyoung at the bottom of the elevator, who was also done with his side of the store, "Wow, you two really are coldblooded. I thought you would have revealed yourselves to save Hansol and company."

"That's probably something they would do, but not us."

"Wow."

"Don't be too envious, we're going to have to pay for it later at home." Minghao rolled his eyes, grimacing slightly at the loads of cuddle time he'll have to give to Mingyu as an apology. Chan seemed to be thinking of something else, but had a similar expression.

Soonyoung looked around for their last remaining member, and caught sight of him still stuck in the store he had been assigned to. "What's taking him so long? I thought Jun was good at this fashion thing."

"Hey, is that Jihoon-hyung?"

"Oh no, we have to grab him and leave." Minghao began to walk at a fast pace towards the store, grabbing Junhui's shoulder from behind.

Not even giving the latter a chance to protest, Minghao dragged Junhui backwards and straight out the department store, hauling him into a taxi along with the rest of the Performance Unit, and safely arriving at their dorm building with their concept still safe from the other units.

Junhui was still slightly stunned by what happened as he followed the others dumbly into the practice room, their sacred ground.

"Is it just me, or was Minghao-hyung kind of hot? Manhandling Jun-hyung and stuff-"

"Chan, get those impure thoughts out of your head when you're in the practice room." Soonyoung stated sternly, pulling up four chairs in the center as usual.

"Kind of late for him if you ask me..." Minghao muttered, sitting down in his chair.

"Funny you should say that- oh wait, yeah, you have all the right to say that." Soonyoung shook his head and sighed. This was all besides the real matter at hand.

They dumped out the newly bought clothes and looked at what they had in order to build on their concept. The Performance Unit had always been depicted as the casual "boys-next-door" types, so like the Vocal Unit, they wanted to change things up a little.

"We're all guys, I'm sure we'd all like to be depicted as cool and macho and stuff like the Hip Hop Unit-" Soonyoung ignored Chan's and Minghao's scoffs, "So my guess is that the Vocal Unit may also be thinking along those lines. It's no fun if all of us are trying to go for that image, but then it's unfair if we're the ones who have to sacrifice our manliness-" He ignored the scoffs again, "The Performance Unit is well known for our ability to adapt to any concept and of course, our quick-change expressions, so I thought we should incorporate that and have a 'two-sided' concept."

"That sounds fun, and it makes sense." Minghao nodded as Chan immediately did an example of his quick-change expressions.

"It's essential that this info doesn't go out to anyone." Soonyoung looked straight at Junhui, "Anyone."

"I get it, I wasn't even close to giving it away." Junhui protested, slumping slightly into his chair. "I wonder if Jihoonie's still mad at me..."

"See? That's exactly what I'm talking about!" Soonyoung pulled his chair closer to Junhui, "Buddy, I need to tell you something."

"What?" Junhui rolled his eyes, he could probably guess what it was from Soonyoung's mock-serious look into his eyes.

"You're whipped."

"Anyway..." Minghao cut in, "Now that we have that sorted out, shouldn't we get to coordinating everyone's looks?" He indicated towards the scattered pieces of clothing on the floor.

"Ah, right, let's do that." Soonyoung laughed, having way too much fun teasing Junhui.

The Performance Unit spent the rest of their afternoon slaving over their costume coordination, assigning each member to a different look that suited their own style and taste but still within the concept. When they heard the door open, they immediately stumbled over each other to hide their work and then pretended to act natural by pretending to be play-fighting.

"Oh hey~ what brings you guys down here to our humble nest?" Soonyoung asked with a stupidly forced grin on his face as he looked over at Seungcheol and Jihoon.

"We have a meeting today, you're late." Seungcheol replied, it was hard to tell if he was amused or not due to the shades he was wearing.

"Why are you wearing shades?"

"The camera flashes at the department store today 'did stuff' to his eyes." Jihoon rolled his eyes, his mouth quirked upwards slightly that suggested he was amused by the situation and thus there was probably nothing serious to worry about. Probably. It was hard to tell with Jihoon.

"Okay, well, I guess I'll see you guys at dinner." Soonyoung sighed as the rest of the unit nodded, watching as their leader was "taken away against his will" between Seungcheol and Jihoon.

As soon as they were sure the door was closed securely, the three started to clean up their space, putting the clothes back inside their bags and storing them away under their beds.

Once that was taken care of, they headed down to the living room where the other members seemed to be lounging around in now that they had a few minutes of freedom. Chan and Minghao simultaneously flashed Junhui a look that told him not to give their plan away. The latter only rolled his eyes, he wouldn't give in that easily to anyone but (maybe) Jihoon.

He glanced towards the corner where the Hip Hop Unit members were kind of having a mini-gathering, whispering to each other and nudging each other in the shoulders. Finally, Wonwoo broke away and walked towards Junhui.

"Hey, Jun, I wanted to ask you something as _friends who've treated each other like brothers_."

Uh-oh.

 


	18. Oh Yeah Put Your Hands Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wonwoo and Junhui have a "heart-to-heart talk", which leads to Jihoon confronting Wonwoo about having unrequited feelings for a certain bro.  
> The Performance Unit members attempt to charm-talk their partners into telling them their concepts. Of course, some were more successful than others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dundundun, our first love triangle emerges- not really.  
> In the spirit of Jeonghan's (late)birthday, I tried to add more "screen time" for him (also JunHan is pretty cute, all of them are cute)

Wonwoo had lead Junhui outside onto the balcony, closing the glass sliding doors securely behind them while trying to ignore the obvious thumbs-up from Seungcheol, as well as Mingyu's mouthing of the words "You're the Hip Hop Unit's last hope!" and "Jun-hyung is an easy target!"

"Did Mingyu just say that-"

"Ignore them." Wonwoo stated flatly, turning Junhui's back against the door so that they were both halfway leaned over the handlebars near the edge of the balcony.

Junhui waited in silence for his best friend to start interrogating him, but the rapper seemed to be taking his time with choosing the right questions. From the way Wonwoo's jaw was tightly clenched, it seemed as though he were literally chewing his tongue.

"Wonwoo-"

"Jun-"

They both started, and interrupted each other. The two looked at the other and both burst into laughter at the awkwardness in the air. It felt like their first time meeting each other back during their trainee days, and Wonwoo remembered that Junhui could barely utter a full coherent sentence at the time and would normally just make awkward noises in an attempt to communicate his point across.

It was amazing how fast his Korean improved, and the same goes to Minghao. Wonwoo had always admired how well their two Chinese members adapted to life in Korea, if it were him, he definitely wouldn't have been able to get over the culture shock as easily, much less master a second language to this extent.

"Junhui, we've known each other for quite some time, huh?"

"Just get to the point. You want information on our concept, right?"

Wonwoo chuckled, "I'm guessing you've been hounded already."

"Not exactly... well, kind of... But that's not the point! I'm definitely not giving out information to anyone!" Junhui stated firmly, crossing his arms in front of his chest just to show his determination.

"Not even if I offer a trade?"

"No, then the Vocal Unit would win."

Wonwoo tilted his head to the side thoughtfully, Junhui did have a point, even if he did only say it out of desperation. Soonyoung had prepared him well. "I guess you're right... then what if we band up against the Vocal Unit?"

"Are you serious?" Junhui asked with a hint of laughter in his voice at the thought of the two units joining forces just to beat the "evil" that was lead by Jihoon and orchestrated by Jeonghan.

"Yeah, aren't you tired of them always winning charades and games in general?"

"Well, I blame Jeonghan-hyung for those mostly, but aren't you just bitter that the Hip Hop Unit's had the least wins out of all three?" Junhui teased, poking Wonwoo in the cheek playfully as the latter pretended to sulk, looking over the balcony with mock wistfulness.

"...I guess tell me if you change your mind on being a loyal boyfriend." Wonwoo scowled lightly at himself, "Okay, that sounded wrong... but you get what I mean."

"Yeah, yeah, I got you." Junhui laughed, putting an arm around Wonwoo affectionately.

The conversation fell into silence once more as the two simply stayed in that position, gazing out towards the horizon where the sun was just beginning to set. The few visible clouds were tinted orange on the bottom, and the soft layers of colors displayed upon the sky calmed Junhui greatly. It's been a while since they could slow down their pace and just enjoy the scenery.

It wasn't like they didn't _have_ anything to say to each other, it's just how their relationship had always been, no words were needed. It wouldn't even be a stretch to say that they could read each other's minds.

Unfortunately their moment of serenity was interrupted by a dry cough that came from behind them. They were so immersed in their "silence conversation" that they hadn't noticed the sliding doors being opened by someone, namely Jihoon.

Meanwhile the newcomer only felt dread upon seeing the two together. He knew better than anyone of their strong friendship where they could exchange thousands of unspoken conversations with just a glance, so how could anyone blame him for feeling uneasy? Even though Junhui was dating Jihoon, the latter really had to wonder if maybe Junhui felt forced into the relationship, especially since he was an easily influenceable guy.

It was moments like these that Jihoon hated himself the most. A healthy relationship was built on trust, and these worries would only break that apart. Besides, he had no doubt that Junhui was loyal to him, but on the other hand...

"Jihoon, how did the meeting go?"

"Sorry, can I talk with Wonwoo alone?" Jihoon ignored Junhui's question and merely stepped aside to let the latter exit the balcony.

While confused, Junhui didn't question Jihoon and simply stepped inside to give them privacy. It only made Jihoon feel worse at how completely Junhui trusted him. Then again, he was that type of person after all. Naive.

Observing Jihoon through slightly narrowed eyes, Wonwoo leaned his back against the handlebar, seemingly waiting for Jihoon to start the conversation.

"...I know this might be rude of me to ask, but can you please be honest with me?" Jihoon took a deep breath, trying very hard to return Wonwoo's steady gaze, "Who exactly is Junhui to you? To tell you the entire truth, I've been suspicious for a while, but there is definitely something in your eyes when you look at him. It almost reminds me of how Seokmin looks at Soonyoung."

Jihoon felt cold sweat pouring down the back of his neck for asking such a personal question as he waited for a response from the rapper, whose eyes had widened slightly. Jihoon's question had clearly caught him off guard.

"Who exactly is Junhui to me...? That's a good question. I would say best friend, but I don't think you'd be satisfied with that answer." Wonwoo murmured half to himself as he broke eye contact, pondering over the inquiry seriously, " _Very good_ best friends?"

"Please be serious."

Wonwoo chuckled lightly, reaching over to pat Jihoon on the shoulder in an attempt to calm the younger boy down. "I don't have romantic feelings for Junhui, and that is the honest truth. It's also true that I may view him apart from the others, but that's only because I'm so used to looking out for him, and I know he feels the same." When Jihoon still didn't look convinced, Wonwoo continued on, "You'd be surprised, but you and Soonyoung are like this as well, yet you two obviously don't have romantic feelings for each other, right?"

"Of course not." Jihoon replied immediately, scrunching up his nose slightly at the thought.

"Exactly. So you really don't have to worry about the two of us."

Jihoon looked at Wonwoo for a while longer before slowly nodding his head, "All right, I believe you..." he then practically collapsed against the balcony railings out of sheer relief, "Sorry about that, I try not to be so paranoid, but you know how Jun is..."

"Oblivious? Naive? Pretends to be sexy but can't handle himself?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Jihoon laughed, remembering how Junhui would always recoil back in embarrassment when he tried "something new."

Junhui watched from inside as his best friend and Jihoon engaged in what appeared to be a serious conversation, but the two suddenly doubled over laughing at some point, and the dancer didn't know what to make of the situation.

"Well, isn't that nice? The boyfriend and best friend bonding over their mutual love for you." Jeonghan commented teasingly from the side as he put an arm around Junhui. Under normal circumstances, Junhui wouldn't have paid any attention to this, but he also shouldn't forget that Jeonghan was the master of cheating, and this might just be part of his strategy in order to get information on the other units' concepts.

"Uh, sure." Junhui tried to be as careful as possible without sounding unnatural. Come on, he was supposed to be good at acting. "Oh, look, Seokmin's right over there, shouldn't you go shower your fool with affection instead?" He laughed awkwardly, trying desperately to get Jeonghan's attention off himself.

"No, no, you see, _Junie_ , I've been thinking, we haven't been able to talk a lot lately, and isn't that a little sad? We're such _good friends_ , and-"

"Jeonghan-hyung, I can't tell you our concept."

"Now, now, don't be like that."

"No, I really can't because I don't know what it is."

"It makes me sad that you'd lie to me." Jeonghan sighed, shaking his head wistfully as Junhui attempted to protest, "I guess you just don't care about your poor mother anymore after meeting your significant other. Who by the way, is also in our unit, so you'd be doing both of us a favor." There was a mischievous glint in Jeonghan's eyes as he noticed the wavering look on Junhui's face.

"I-I really would like to help, but I'm telling you the truth." Completely unconvincing stuttering fell out of Junhui's mouth.

"Well then, I guess you are useless to me." Jeonghan wasn't about to tone down his savageness either, "Maybe my baby will do a better job." He said nonchalantly while hooking his other arm around Chan's neck and pulling him up next to the original duo.

"Noooo, why are you picking on us? Go after Mingyu-hyung or Seungcheol-hyung!" Chan complained, trying to pry Jeonghan's arm off.

"One problem at a time." Jeonghan sighed, continuing his interrogation as the two dancers struggled under his grasp. Why was he only keen on using his strength at times like these? Normally he just pretends to flop around uselessly like a starfish.

Thankfully (or not), Wonwoo and Jihoon returned to the living room in time to potentially save Junhui and Chan.

"Wonwoo! Help m-"

"See you, Junhui."

"Jiho-"

"I'll help you if you tell us your concept."

"Why does no one love me?!"

"I'm doing this _because_ I love you, Junie. You, too, Chan." Jeonghan replied calmly as Wonwoo quietly removed himself from the chaos to join his fellow Hip Hop Unit members back in the corner where Seungcheol was apparently giving some sort of pep talk as per usual.

Finally, after enduring almost another hour of Jihoon and Jeonghan's torture, Junhui and Chan broke free and fled over across the room to where Minghao and Soonyoung were.

"Why didn't you guys try to save us?!" Junhui demanded.

"We were going to interject if you guys looked like you were going to give in, but you know, it was a test of trust." Soonyoung replied, but the amused glint in his eyes gave him away.

"Making sure to catch someone when they fall backwards is a test of trust, not watching your friends getting hunted down by wolves!"

"By the way, I noticed you tried to throw everyone in the Hip Hop Unit under the bus besides Hansol, Chan, that was an act of true love indeed."

"Listen to me!" Junhui whined as Minghao rolled on the ground laughing on the side, holding his stomach. "It's not funny, Minghao, it's sad!"

Once everyone quieted down in their corner, Soonyoung brought up the possibility of maybe going on the offense this time themselves since the other units had both tried to put them on the defense already. Chan insisted that it wasn't supposed to be a competition of warfare, in fact, it wasn't meant to be a competition at all, but his three hyungs were clearly too immersed in the thought of revenge. They were all the competitive type, after all, Chan should have expected it.

"All right, Mingyu and Hansol should be easy targets. We'll be leaving their interrogation to Minghao and Chan. Jun, you just... uh, try your best with Jihoon."

"What about you, Soonyoung-hyung?" Chan questioned, tilting his head to the side, "Aren't you going to 'try your best' with Seokmin-hyung as well?"

"Err..."

"You're willing to put our relationships in jeopardy but not yours, huh?" Junhui accused immediately, narrowing his eyes at their squirming unit leader, "Even though you guys are probably going the steadiest at the moment because of your new _status_ , isn't that right?"

After much haggling from his fellow dancers, Soonyoung finally gave in, much to the others' satisfaction. And so, they proceeded to set their plan in action.

* * *

"Say, Hansol, don't you think it's kind of hot in here?" Out of all the lines he could have used, Chan didn't know why he opted for the worst cheesiest line in all of flirting history. But since the words were out anyway, he might as well go with it- was what he thought as he took off Hansol's cap, using it as a makeshift fan, making sure that his longterm boyfriend was able to see his collarbone clearly from his slightly unbuttoned shirt...

"Turn on the fan, Seungcheol-hyung won't get mad." Hansol replied, barely looking at Chan, much to the latter's surprise. The hyungs were always saying how they would jump on each other at any chance, Chan had actually agreed, and yet, here he was, clearly offering himself up to Hansol and getting ignored. "Although Soonyoung-hyung might. He's been going on about training our endurance and stuff. Do you want me to get you a drink?"

"Hansol, I didn't mean it literally." Chan tried again.

The rapper sighed, retrieving his cap from Chan's hand in an uncharacteristically cool manner that the young dancer wasn't at all used to. Did he see through his plan already? No, Hansol should be more naive than that. Which means he was probably upset about something else...

"Babe, we just had our first serious fight, don't you want to talk about it?" Oh boy, the "babe" nickname was out, and Chan couldn't help cringing slightly at it.

"...Do you still want to move out?"

"I do." Hansol replied almost immediately, a serious look on his face as he leaned against the desk behind him, his arms crossed as he looked at Chan with a leveled stare, "But I don't want to force you to do anything you don't feel ready for-"

"Are you seriously just parroting what you said for the first time we had sex?" Chan couldn't help interrupting, the seriousness in Hansol's eyes was making him feel uneasy. Normally Hansol would be holding him close by now and telling him everything would be all right, and Chan, well... maybe Chan was just too used to being spoiled.

The dancer swallowed uneasily as Hansol motioned for the younger to come closer, he then pulled Chan gently onto his lap, one arm wrapped around the younger's waist securely while the other intertwined their fingers together. Throughout this process, Hansol hadn't once broken eye contact, his sincerity caused Chan's chest to tighten.

"I can wait, you know. I'll wait for as long as it takes for you to be ready." Hansol paused for a second before adding, "I was going to also wait for the hyungs, but I don't think Jeonghan-hyung will ever approve of it."

"It's not fair, I'm always the one making you wait!" Chan tried not to whine, but he couldn't help it under Hansol's gentle touch that he felt he didn't even deserve, "You're always putting up with my selfishness, I feel like I'm not giving back to you at all!"

"So that's what you're worried about?" Hansol smiled lopsidedly up at Chan, holding his hand even tighter, tracing comforting circles along the back of it, "I wish you could see yourself through my eyes... A genuinely hardworking person who takes his responsibilities seriously, cute yet deadly, and most importantly, a pure kind soul who never complains when work is hard, and instead tries to motivate the others. A person like that needs to be able to act selfish sometimes, right? I'm glad I have the honor to receive that."

Chan looked at Hansol in an unconvinced manner.

"I literally just threw the cheesiest stuff at you, and you're not going to complain?" Hansol teased, prompting Chan slightly higher on his lap.

"I knew it, you do it on purpose!"

"No, no, everything I say is genuine."

Relieved that the mood had lightened, Chan smiled slightly at his boyfriend, he really couldn't ask for a better lover, and that thought still made him feel guilty. No matter what Hansol said, he still felt like he should be on the giving end for once.

"Just let me do something for you, please? Or else I'll feel bad, and you don't want me to feel bad, right?"

An amused glint sparked briefly in the rapper's eyes before the older of the two responded slowly and thoughtfully, "Well, if you insist... You could tell me what your concept is."

"...You're smarter than I thought."

"Ouch."

"But are you sure there's nothing else I can help you with?" Chan asked hopefully, brushing a stray strand of orange hair out of Hansol's eyes.

"Nope."

"I let you cuddle me for more than fifteen minutes, that's service enough."

"Aw, come on!" Hansol followed quickly after Chan as the latter hopped off and exited the room, "We're not Minghao-hyung and Mingyu-hyung, you know!"

Minghao and Mingyu turned their heads quickly at the mention of their names, the former quickly lost interest when he saw Hansol running after the younger dancer, but the latter turned towards Minghao with panic in his eyes.

"What does that mean?!"

"Nothing bad, Mingyu, don't worry." Minghao rolled his eyes, patting the taller boy gently on the shoulder before turning back to the plate of lamb skewers in front of him that Mingyu had brought as an "offering."

Mingyu folded his arms on the surface of the table and rested his chin on top of them, looking up at Minghao with wide excited eyes, "So will you tell me your concept now?"

"If you tell me yours first."

"I'm not playing this game, you always cheat! Also, Seungcheol-hyung will kill me..." Mingyu mumbled the last part as Minghao laughed, putting an arm around Mingyu comfortingly. If Mingyu were a dog he'd probably be pressing himself against the floor whining by now.

Their little questioning game was at a stalemate at the moment, despite Soonyoung being totally confident that Minghao had Mingyu wrapped around his finger. Clearly he had underestimated Seungcheol's intimidation skills, especially since he was still wearing those shades.

To be completely honest, Minghao also felt bad about taking advantage of Mingyu's innocent nature so he was purposely going easy on him. Besides, he didn't really think it was _that_ important for them to know each other's concepts as long as the Performance Unit crushed the other two units utterly in the end. Yeah, he needed to take this more seriously.

"Why aren't you eating anymore? Are they not good?" Mingyu started to worry immediately after noticing Minghao's sudden stillness.

"No, no, they're fine. Do you want some?"

Minghao watched as Mingyu ate the meat offered to him happily, relishing in its taste. The former felt his heart immediately soften at the sight, there was no way he could interrogate this fluffy thing. Maybe the others had their relationship all wrong, Mingyu was the one who had Minghao wrapped around his finger.

Meanwhile there was Soonyoung and Seokmin. Let's be honest here, there was no way Soonyoung could have been forceful about the topic so he ended up asking as nicely as possible if Seokmin could possibly give him some spoilers on their new concept. Of course he said no, leading to pouty Soonyoung, which lead to sunshine Seokmin trying to cheer pouty Soonyoung up. Pouty Soonyoung says that the only way to cheer him up was to tell him their concept (in a completely unconvincing manner as he was already smiling from seeing Seokmin's cheerful grin), but then Jeonghan interjected.

"Haven't you heard? It's bad luck for the grooms to see each other before the wedding. I think you guys should be separated until then."

"Jeonghan-hyung is a devil. _The_ devil." Soonyoung deadpanned to Minghao as he joined the two dongsaengs at the table after having his love literally ripped away from him.

"We all know that." Minghao patted Soonyoung on the arm sympathetically, "Lamb skewer?"

"Ironically Jun is now our only hope." Soonyoung sighed, taking the offered food and going into a stress-eating frenzy, "He can't do it."

"Yeah, no, he can't."

"Wow, I'm so happy to hear how much my teammates trust me." Junhui mumbled from the couch, his chin resting on the sofa arm as he stared at Jihoon from all the way across the room.

"Well, yeah, you're not even trying to get closer. It's Jihoon, he's probably not going to come by himself-" Soonyoung stopped mid-sentence as he watched the main vocalist walk over to the sofa and sat down next to Junhui. Albeit with very stoic mannerisms, but still, he initiated it. "I stand corrected, I didn't think he'd be this easily whipped-"

"Just focus on getting your cheeks chubby, Soonyoung, since that's your only redeeming physical quality." Jihoon shot out venomously, and rolled his eyes when Soonyoung pretended to look hurt and sought comfort from Minghao and Mingyu. "Anyway, onto more important things..."

"I can't tell you our concept!" Junhui immediately blurted out, but all Jihoon did was pull him down by the shirt and planted a kiss on his lips before leaning away, shuffling over to the far side of the sofa and curling up in the corner with his notebook. "...What was that?"

"I can't kiss my boyfriend?" Jihoon blinked, completely calm as he scribbled down something on an initially blank page.

"You came all the way here just to do that?"

"'All the way'... we're in the same room, you know. I'm not Jeonghan-hyung."

Junhui's mouth continued to gape open as he stared at Jihoon, who still seemed completely unfazed by his actions and words. Junhui had underestimated how much Jihoon's adapted to PDA, and it was Junhui's turn to get embarrassed about his nonchalant initiations.

"Well, you know, you were very insistent earlier, and... I'm sorry I doubted you."

Jihoon snorted, "Yeah you are."

Ignoring Jihoon's seemingly offended tone, Junhui inched closer to the shorter boy until their shoulders were touching, he then laid his head down on Jihoon's lap, which the latter didn't seem to find displeasing. In fact, Jihoon even made more space for him by uncurling slightly and holding his notebook higher.

"...Jihoonie, you look so handsome from down here~"

"You do know I'm holding a sharpened pencil, right?"

Junhui smiled. His words were still harsh but his actions were tender, that's just one of the things he loved about Jihoon. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Soonyoung making signs with his hands, trying to get him to "pop the question", but how could he now? It'd feel like a betrayal.

* * *

"But that's probably exactly their strategy!" Soonyoung screamed into Junhui's face, "They're not attacking, but they're making it so that we can't attack either!"

"Okay, you need to stop referring to this as 'attacking'." Junhui sighed, wiping Soonyoung's spit off his cheek with distain.

The dancers were now gathered at their "home base" once more, namely the practice room, feeling dejected. Even Chan and Minghao had failed to gain information thanks to... let's just say the other units' strong tactics?

"We need to come up with a better plan..."

"Hey, I wasn't done on my report though." Junhui interrupted Soonyoung's thinking.

"What else can you possibly add for your report?"

"I saw some of Jihoon's notes for their unit solo stage."

The room fell silent as the other three turned to look at Junhui with wide eyes. "...Well, why didn't you say that earlier?!"

Junhui shrugged, "Because you guys all assumed I wasn't doing anything for our 'mission'?"

"Wait, wait, wait, what sort of notes? Was it about their concept?" Soonyoung pulled his chair closer, narrowing his eyes at Junhui with slight skepticism.

"No, but I saw what appears to be draft lyrics, and Jihoon kept muttering something about 'mature image'..."

"YES! This means we're ahead!" Soonyoung cheered, grabbing his notebook and scrawling it down on a page that had huge bolded words on top **"ENEMIES"**. Sometimes Minghao wondered if their unit leader was just taking this a little far, but then the three always did had some sort of friendly rivalry going on.

Again, this wasn't a competition in the first place, but he guessed their group just had a competitive streak in general. As long as they were having fun, Minghao didn't see anything wrong with it. The atmosphere also became much more lively around the house now that the units had found a way to "engage" with one another without having to act overly secretive by avoiding each other. Just leave it to them when it comes to making things fun.

"Jihoon-hyung's going to be so mad at you when he finds out..." Minghao mumbled to Junhui quietly.

"Yup, in fact, I finished writing my will before I came down here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is ChanSol relationship goals yet? I'm biased towards this pairing, personally. (aside from JunHoon of course)  
> All SVT ships are relationship goals though, let's be honest :'D


	19. This Cursed Popularity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The calm before the storm.

"I don't get it, are they trying to be sexy?"

"Pfft, Jihoon can't be sexy."

"I really don't think you should be the one saying that, Junnie-hyung."

The Performance Unit members chattered over each other as they squeezed up against the studio room door, trying to catch a glimpse of what the Vocal Unit was doing. Of course, being the Vocal Unit, they didn't have much movement going on as they wanted the audience to focus mostly on their vocals, so Soonyoung wasn't sure what they were trying to pull with the mature image. He didn't mean to brag, but he has all the best expression makers on his team, they had no chance-

"Okay, yeah, we're in trouble." Soonyoung said, ripping his gaze away from the "enemy team."

"Why? It still looks like a typical Vocal Unit performance to me." Minghao said, looking over Soonyoung's head.

"He was probably distracted by Seokmin." Junhui teased, nudging Soonyoung away and peering through the glass himself, "...Yeah, we're pretty much screwed."

"Oh my god, you two are no help today. You know what? Chan and I will stay here spying on the Vocal Unit, you guys can go monitor the Hip Hop Unit." Minghao rolled his eyes, shoving the two older dancers away and pulling Chan to the front with him.

Ignoring the other two's sounds of protests, Chan and Minghao pushed Junhui and Soonyoung off to the other recording room where the Hip Hop Unit was using as their home base.

Junhui wasn't going to admit that they were soft enough to allow the Performance Unit maknae line to push them around, but they were nice enough to let it slide. Yup, that was all there was to it.

He spent the rest of his time absentmindedly staring at the Hip Hop Unit while they wrote lyrics to what he assumed to be a new instrumental Jihoon whipped up. Of course, since they were still one group he didn't think Jihoon would purposely sabotage the Hip Hop Unit's feature song just for a little in-game, so he expected the song to sound crazy good after the Hip Hop Unit's revision.

"I wonder if we'll be able to get a new song as well. I mean, the remix you made was good, but..."

"Hey, we're the Performance Unit, of course our performance is going to be the best! Don't mind trivial stuff like that, yeah?" Soonyoung punched Junhui lightly in the shoulder, "It's time to prove that we're not just background dancers, we're the _main_ dancers."

* * *

"Jihoon, can you try saying the whispering lines in OMG?" Junhui suddenly asked while leaning against the younger boy, looking down at him expectantly with curiosity practically glowing from his eyes.

"...Err... _Shh, I bet you're surprised-_ STOP LAUGHING!" Jihoon violently punched Junhui in the stomach, causing the dancer to double over into a mixed flurry of coughing and laughing while Jihoon's cheeks flushed red, "Did you just ask to embarrass me? You sure have a strange hobby..."

"No, no..." Junhui said unconvincingly as he tried to suppress his laughter, ruffling Jihoon's hair playfully as the latter tried hard not to pout in a childish manner, "I was just curious... I mean, Soonyoung does a good job with it-"

"Then ask him to do it." Jihoon griped, folding his hands over his chest, a clearly annoyed expression on his face, 

Junhui laughed, putting an arm around the smaller boy affectionately and rubbing his shoulders warmly, "I was mostly laughing because your face and voice don't really match up sometimes. Your expressions are really something else though, to be completely honest."

Jihoon rolled his eyes, dismissing the compliment that still sounded like an insult to him. He didn't know if it was because Junhui still had trouble with expressing himself in Korean sometimes, or if it was because he was just weird, but Junhui seemed to be making extra less sense today. Soonyoung had also been staring at Seokmin with moony eyes, more so than usual, and that was saying something.

Something must be up, and Jihoon was determined to wring the truth out of them. The last time Soonyoung was being so affectionate towards Seokmin was because he felt guilty about something... maybe that was it. The Performance Unit was feeling guilty for some reason. What could it be...? Maybe they're just acting guilty beforehand since they think they have a sure win against the other two units? No, that's impossible, they definitely wouldn't be that pompous. Right?

 _This is stupid, it's just a game._ Jihoon reminded himself as Junhui absentmindedly shifted himself away from the shorter boy briefly, muttering something about getting ice for his bruised stomach (he hoped he was kidding about the bruised part).

Through the corners of his eyes, he noticed Hansol and Chan entering the room, stuck together like glue as usual. Lately Jihoon had sensed some awkward vibes between the two, but it looked like they had cleared things up since the tension had been lifted quite a bit. More like, now it was a different kind of tension... But Jihoon didn't have time to think too much about that.

On the other side, there was Minghao and Mingyu playing a video game together, it seemed like a routine for them to do so after getting dinner with everyone. Jihoon could almost say that the two couples were a stark contrast to one another, but they both seemed equally happy so maybe there really wasn't a formula they could follow for happy relationships. Soonyoung and Seokmin were... well, not much different from how they were as just friends. He wondered how he and Junhui looked in the eyes of others, hopefully not as mushy... Jihoon hated stuff like that. Then again, he didn't exactly mind shows of affection from Junhui, in fact, he liked having his attention. As long as he didn't take it too far.

"Wonwoo, let go- hey, that tickles!" Junhui gasped between shrieks of laughter as Wonwoo took him in a chokehold with one hand and tickled him with the other.

"It's payback for this morning. By the way, I thought you weren't ticklish?" Wonwoo looked extremely amused as Junhui continued to beg for mercy, clawing at the arm that was holding him captive.

"I'm not! Or at least I thought I wasn't... Now let go!" Junhui continued to laugh, attempting to kick his legs backwards towards his attacker. This action later became an inspiration for Soonyoung to incorporate into a new choreography, but that was another story.

Jihoon watched the two's interaction with narrowed eyes. As he was saying, he didn't mind Junhui's shows of affection as long as he didn't take it too far. And that was definitely too far.

No, wait, let's not be hasty. Both of them had assured Jihoon that they were just friends, nothing more. Friends like Soonyoung and Jihoon, yup. But Soonyoung would never do that to Jihoon, right? Then again, Jihoon and Junhui were very different in that aspect.

"How can you guys still be so noisy? All of us spent the entire day rehearsing." Jisoo pretended to scold the two 96-liners messing around, but had a mischievous glint in his eyes as he moved towards them, "Clearly you haven't been working enough, why don't you use that leftover energy to give your hyung a massage session?"

"Oh, come on!" Junhui whined as Wonwoo quickly retracted his arms and pretended to look horrified at Jisoo's suggestion.

Jihoon sighed, losing interest as Jisoo proceeded to play an intense game of tag with the two younger members, running around the living room and jumping over Minghao and Mingyu's sprawled out bodies at one point. Well, at least the problem was kind of fixed.

Maybe he needed lessons from the others after all on how to control his jealousy. But could anyone blame him? Junhui loved skinship, even though that was probably Jihoon's most hated thing aside from aegyo. Then there was Wonwoo, always ready to receive Junhui's arm hugs and cuddles with a small smile on his face, not even flinching when Junhui leaned his head against the crook of his neck.

"But Junhui likes _you_." Seungcheol had said in an attempt to reassure Jihoon that it wasn't something he should worry about. "Despite knowing that you're the opposite of him. Isn't it the same for you?"

He hated admitting it, but Seungcheol could say some very reliable things sometimes. But what if Wonwoo really did have feelings for Junhui? What if he decided to confess? Wouldn't it make sense for Junhui to run to him instead?

"Please, if they were attracted to each other like that, things would have happened already. Look at Seokmin-hyung and Soonyoung-hyung." Seungkwan had said when Jihoon confided in him about his worries.

Well... he trusted Junhui, at least. He'd like to trust Wonwoo, but... he was just so hard to read.

* * *

"See you, Jihoon! I'm going to get food with the others-"

"Jun, wait." Jihoon called quickly, trying not to sound too alarmed as he noticed the party was made up of Junhui, Wonwoo, Minghao, and Mingyu. The infamous square that their fans loved to ship with anyone in anyway. Admittedly that was all information he learned from Hansol and Jisoo. Of course he wasn't worried about Minghao and Mingyu, but... it was just Wonwoo. "Um... can I come?"

Junhui blinked at their main vocalist slowly, then shifted his gaze to the three waiting at the door, "Sure, we don't mind, but... We're planning on getting spicy curry, you sure you want to-"

"Never mind." Jihoon quickly said the moment 'curry' was mentioned, making swift steps towards the door as he pushed Junhui along, "All right, you guys get along now, don't bother to bring any leftovers back, okay, bye." With that, the four were practically shoved out of the building. The matter with Wonwoo could wait, he wasn't about to sacrifice his taste buds.

Now then, the real question was, what was _he_ going to have for lunch?

He scanned the room quickly for potential meal partners. His go-to was always Soonyoung, but the latter had left with Seokmin before Junhui's lot, and Jihoon wasn't desperate enough to interrupt a date between the two.

After a long period of pondering to himself, Jihoon finally settled on Seungcheol as the first person he should ask. Until Seungkwan came along, and the two kind of snuck out the backdoor. Why the backdoor? Jihoon didn't care.

So he approached Jeonghan and Jisoo instead, who both (thankfully) willingly agreed to go get some food with him. They somehow ended up at a barbecue stand, but Jihoon wasn't complaining, he liked meat. Not to mention Jeonghan had tricked Jisoo into buying cola for them, it couldn't get better than this... Until they caught sight of a certain four-person group walking along the street across from them.

Jisoo was about to call out to them, but was stopped by Jihoon, who had gabbed onto the two hyungs' sleeves and dragged them around the corner completely out of reflex. He didn't understand why he felt the need to hide from the four, Wonwoo and Junhui in particular, it wasn't like he was the one trying to get in between a relationship, right? There was no such person anyway... was what Jihoon wanted to believe.

"Jihoon, what's wrong?" Jisoo asked, tilting his head slightly, "Did you have an argument with Jun?"

"No! Nothing like that..." Jihoon replied, shaking his head vigorously, but at the same time glancing away unconvincingly.

"Is it Wonwoo?" Jeonghan suddenly prompted, much to Jihoon's surprise which he showed evidently by practically jumping one step backwards from the older vocalist. 

"Wonwoo? What about him?" Jisoo scowled slightly, tucking his hands into his coat pockets as he looked at Jihoon, then at Jeonghan when the younger didn't seem to plan on giving a response.

Jeonghan sighed, placing a hand on Jihoon's shoulder, "Jihoon, there is no way Wonwoo has feelings for Junnie."

"You don't know that-"

"Actually, I do. Wonwoo is straight." There was a brief pause as Jihoon practically stood rooted to the sidewalk, his mouth gaping open at Jeonghan, "Hey, usually it's the other way around," Jeonghan laughed, pulling on Jisoo's arm to make the still very much lost guitar player stand closer, "It shouldn't be that surprising, right? We're also straight- Okay, now you're just being rude." The oldest of the three pretended to frown disapprovingly at Jihoon's eye-roll.

Jihoon let out a weak laugh, tugging on the edges of his own sleeves slightly in a self-conscious manner, "Sorry, for some reason I never considered that possibility..."

"Well, I'm not surprised, given our environment." Jisoo shrugged, beginning to walk down the street nonchalantly, "I mean, no one even questioned it when our first couple formed, right? And then more just kept popping up one after the other." He stopped to look back at Jihoon, "But it just shows how supportive the members are to each other, don't you agree?"

"Yes, I feel very lucky..."

Jisoo smiled triumphantly at himself, glad that he managed to say something hyung-like for once to his dongsaeng who normally carried a hyung-like aura, more so than him. He continued to walk, but realized that he couldn't hear footsteps following after him and paused to look back quizzically at Jeonghan and Jihoon, who hadn't moved an inch.

"What gives?"

"Jisoo, our dorm is in the opposite direction."

* * *

Junhui on the other hand was having a much easier day than Jihoon in the mental aspect. After all, he got to eat spicy food with his closest friends, and as far as they were concerned, the Performance Unit was at least one step ahead of the other two units in terms of preparations. Things seemed to be finally going their way for once, but they still needed to watch out for the Vocal Unit... Jeonghan always has something up his sleeve.

Nonetheless, he and Minghao returned to the dorm in high-spirits, still chattering away in a mix of both Chinese and Korean as they made their way to the practice room where Soonyoung had texted them to meet with him. Chan wasn't there, but that was because he had something personal to deal with. He didn't say much about it, but Minghao guessed the manager was probably having him be the main choreographer for a new song. It seemed that they were trying to push him more so that he could take off some of Soonyoung's workload in the future.

When they arrived, they were surprised to see Soonyoung sitting down at the table with a laptop balanced in his lap, staring intently at the screen. He jumped slightly when Minghao called out his name, but quickly regained his posture, as expected.

"Oh, hey, what brings you guys here?"

"You told us to come."

"...Right."

Soonyoung stood up and literally shook himself awake, then took quick steps towards the other two, still holding the laptop close to his chest in a secretive manner. His eyes darted towards the practice room doors repeatedly as though expecting someone to be eavesdropping on them, or worse, burst in, which was not entirely impossible.

After making sure that they were, in fact, alone, Soonyoung gestured for Junhui and Minghao to come closer, until their heads were practically pressed together in a triangle formation. "Jun, how confident are you on the piano?"

"Um... I'm a little rusty, but I remember a decent amount of stuff." Junhui replied, arching an eyebrow slightly and trying not to cringe at how Soonyoung was literally breathing into his face, "Why?"

"Here's the thing... I'd like to try writing a song."


	20. Am I Going by the Seasons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Performance Unit's decision to create a completely original song is surprisingly met by less than enthusiastic response, especially from Jihoon.  
> Maknae line try to act as mediators.

"Whoo, how can Jihoon not develop claustrophobia?" Soonyoung sighed, sliding his headphones down around in his neck and flopping back against the chair tiredly, sweat pouring down from under his cap from just the heat alone inside the small space.

Chan and Junhui made lifeless grumbling noises in agreement from their respective locations on the floor and the desk. The three had spent 12 hours straight composing the song, testing out remixes, and writing lyrics. In hindsight, that may actually be considered an incredibly short time for all that to be done, but at the cost of skipped meals and little to no sleep.

Minghao had joined in on giving ideas for lyrics and recorded the test song, but offered to stand guard outside later when Chan took over for rap lyrics. A couple of times while spacing out, Junhui thought he heard Mingyu whining outside, trying to get Minghao to play games with him or something, and the usual bickering noises that followed.

"How far along are we now?" Chan asked, still lying completely splayed out on the floor with crumpled up lyric drafts scattered around him.

"This should be the final for the instrumental. I think we should run it through Bumzu-hyung first, though."

"Of course." Chan replied as Soonyoung made a weak fist pump motion.

Chan then raised his head to look at Junhui who had become abnormally quiet for a while. Normally he would be the last one to go down with his positive energy, but he was just sitting on the edge of the desk with his arms crossed and his head low. Chan wondered if he had fallen asleep or passed out in that position.

"Jun-hyung?"

"Wow, did he fall asleep?" Soonyoung laughed, turning around in his chair and scooting over to him. "Hey, Junhui!" He called while clapping his hands together dangerously close to Junhui's face. The latter's head quickly shot up at the disturbance, looking initially confused by his surroundings at first before remembering where they were and what they were doing.

"Oh... are we done?" Junhui asked, attempting to rub away the sleep in his eyes.

"For now, yeah." Soonyoung let out a tired smile, patting Junhui on the back affectionately, "All right, let's go grab some midnight snacks or something."

"Don't forget Minghao."

"Of course we won't forget Minghao, not with you here." Soonyoung muttered. Sensing a pretty strong murderous aura behind him, he quickly added, "I was just kidding! No one forgets Minghao, geez."

The three headed out to collect their loyal watchdog who had given up on warding off Mingyu, and was now sitting on the floor against the wall with Mingyu's head on his lap, reading what appeared to be a fairytale story.

"...Why?" Was the only thing that came out of Soonyoung's mouth when they were greeted with the scene.

"It was the only way to make him quiet."

"By reading a fairytale story?"

"Not specifically a fairytale story, but this was the only book Wonwoo-hyung would let me borrow, okay?"

_"That book belongs to Wonwoo?"_

Junhui could tell that things were just going to continue spiraling downwards from there, forget about getting any midnight snacks, they'll probably be too awkward with each other to even join the others for breakfast. So before that could happen, he quickly shoved Chan out of the room with him, leaving Soonyoung and Minghao to sort things out. Not to mention they probably would have had to take Mingyu along, and he wasn't exactly in the mood to watch Mingyu and Minghao feed each other first thing after 12 hours of basically imprisonment.

It was late out, so Junhui and Chan settled for convenience store bought ramyeon as their midnight snack. They slurped their noodles in silence, thinking about the consequences they'll probably have to face when they see Soonyoung again.

When Junhui had worked through his meal to almost the bottom of the bowl, Chan suddenly spoke, "Do you think our song will be a success? I mean, they'll probably have high expectations from us because of Jihoon-hyung's good record... What if we drag it down?"

Junhui paused, staring at the leftover soup in his bowl. He would be lying if he said that wasn't possible, but it was also his responsibility as the hyung to comfort a dongsaeng in distress. "I'm sure it'll be fine. We did put our all into it after all. It's no use worrying about something that hasn't happened yet."

"I guess you're right..." Chan muttered around a mouthful of noodles, ducking his head down for another shovel.

"Is there something else bothering you?"

"No, I'm just a little..." The younger boy quickly stopped himself, shook his head as though to tell Junhui to just drop the subject.

"Hey, we're not in the practice room or the recording studio anymore, you can say it."

"...I'm just a little tired."

Junhui grinned, putting an arm around the youngest dancer and pulling him close. It was probably the first time he's ever heard Chan confess that he was tired, even during tours, promotions, comebacks, he's never heard the maknae utter even a word of complaint or show a hint of exhaustion. He was strong like that, and Junhui knew it well. Everyone knew it well.

But sometimes it was better to admit it, the weight of having to conceal one's exhaustion would prove to be fatal one day, after all.

* * *

"A little bird told me that you guys are producing your own original song." Seungkwan said with a wiggle of his eyebrows when all the members were gathered in the dining room for breakfast the next morning.

"You mean a giant puppy?" Soonyoung sighed tiredly.

"A giant loudmouthed puppy?" Minghao added venomously, flashing a glare at Mingyu. If Seungkwan knew, then the whole team probably already knew by now.

While most of the members expressed excitement to hear their new song as well as phrases such as "good luck" and "you've work hard", Junhui noticed that Jihoon appeared to be particularly quiet. He thought that Jihoon would have a lot to say since song producing was right in his zone of expertise, but he didn't seem to look all that interested. In fact, he seemed almost upset.

"So that's why you guys were up so late last night. Well, producing an entirely original song from scratch is definitely tough, even for professionals. Right, Jihoon?" Seungcheol prompted, seemingly having sensed the abnormal silence from a certain corner.

"...Why can't the Performance Unit just focus on _performing_?" Jihoon finally spoke, but the words that came out were definitely not what Junhui expected. It wasn't like he was expecting praise, but maybe something closer to advice? Yet that was neither here nor there.

"Because that's not the only thing we can do?" Soonyoung replied after an awkward pause around the table.

"Producing songs is my job."

"Well, since creating choreography is my job, I guess none of the other two units should have choreography in their showcases. Seriously, can you even hear yourself?" Soonyoung scowled, wondering why Jihoon was acting so blind to logic, completely contrary to his usual self.

"...Producing songs is _my_ job." Jihoon repeated, as though he hadn't heard Soonyoung's previous response at all.

Exasperated, Soonyoung stood up from his seat, "The Hip Hop Unit and the Vocal Unit both get original songs, all we get to do sometimes is create remixes. Sure, we're the Performance Unit, but we can sing and rap as well, just like how everyone can dance. If there's dancing incorporated in both the Hip Hop Unit's and Vocal Unit's showcases, why can't we have singing and rapping in ours as well? Do we not deserve to show that our unit's also multitalented?"

Jihoon had also stood up at this point, but his voice was still steady and almost scarily monotonous, "The Performance Unit's showcase is meant to show how well you _perform_ , not how well you sing or rap."

"That still doesn't mean we can't incorporate original singing and rapping though. Besides, it's our showcase, why are you being so controlling?"

"If you want to sing so badly, you should have just joined the Vocal Unit, it's not like you didn't have a choice!" Jihoon blurted out, causing Soonyoung's mouth to clamp shut. Without another word, the group's choreographer stormed out of the room while Seokmin quickly excused himself from the table to check on the former.

The rest of the table stared at Jihoon with disbelief. They had thought that Soonyoung and Jihoon understood each other best within the team, so of course the whole scene seemed entirely unreal, maybe they somehow had a shared collective bad dream. Seungcheol really hoped that was the case, there was just too much tension rising everywhere both within and outside the group lately.

* * *

"You know Jihoon-hyung is not good with words, he probably meant to say that everyone knows you guys are multitalented, you don't have to prove yourselves; you just have to focus on performing instead of adding all that extra work to yourselves." Seokmin soothed as Soonyoung sat down on the front steps of the dorm, curled up into a small fluffy ball with a slightly oversized sweater on.

"You don't have to defend him, we all know he's a genuine asshole." Soonyoung grumbled bitterly.

"Well... I agree that he went too far on the Vocal Unit thing..."

"Right?" Soonyoung heaved a deep sigh. He knew that he was being abnormally bitter because he had always thought of Jihoon as his best friend, so hearing such words of disapproval from him was definitely something he hadn't prepared for. He also knew that Jihoon had his own reasons for acting so stubborn, but that didn't give him the right to practically attack their unit's purpose.

Seokmin remained silent for a moment, giving Soonyoung some space to himself while pondering on the matter. His guess was that Jihoon wanted to protect the Performance Unit from the stress of producing songs, after all, he would know it best himself. Besides, Jihoon did seem like the type who would rather carry a huge load of stress by himself rather than sharing it with the others. Sometimes Seokmin wished that Jihoon would rely on them more in that aspect.

Later on, Seokmin decided to ask Junhui if he had managed to talk things out with Jihoon, only to learn that the couple apparently hadn't talked since the accident. Not because they held ill feelings towards each other since then, but because Junhui had been avoiding Jihoon. It was a queer sight, Seokmin had thought that it'd be the other way around.

"I want to understand his side of the situation, but at the same time, I don't think I will be able to in my current state." Junhui explained, and Seokmin could hear the exasperation in his tone. It sounded extremely foreign from Junhui's mouth, usually he was full of energy, and at times, too much, Seokmin couldn't have imagined he could end up looking this worn out. His condition seemed even worse than when they had that whole "Performance Unit is leaving" fiasco.

Seokmin felt a shiver run up his spine.

That was probably the first sign.

* * *

"I have always been supportive of you, so why can't you be?!"

"So you're saying I've never been supportive of you?"

"...That's not what I'm saying-"

"Sure sounds like it to me."

"Jihoon, come back!"

Chan quickly ducked behind the corner as the door was flung open by an incredibly pissed off Jihoon, followed by scurrying footsteps from Junhui as the latter chased after the group's producer. It wasn't like Chan had a hobby of eavesdropping, he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He hated admitting it, but he just wanted his hyungs to return to being all googly-eyed and blushing messes. It was hard to believe that things could change so drastically with just a couple of words.

Well, "just a couple of words" wasn't right, Chan understood how damage inducing they were, especially from Jihoon. In fact, when Junhui tried to approach Jihoon after the clash between the latter and Soonyoung, Jihoon had apparently refused to listen to the song they finally managed to complete, leading to the argument above.

"Do you think they're going to break up again?" Seungkwan asked quietly from next to Chan, almost shocking the latter out of his skin. Guess he wasn't the only one eavesdropping, but Seungkwan was way too good at hiding his presence.

"That, uh, that would be awfully fast..." Chan replied under his breath, scared that Junhui or Jihoon would suddenly return and ask what they were doing.

"It really would." Seungkwan mused to himself. After nodding a couple of times to himself, he turned towards Chan, "You know what we should do?"

"What?" But the moment he saw the hard determination in Seungkwan's eyes in addition to a mischievous spark, Chan knew he shouldn't have asked, "No."

"Too late, you're in on this now."

"Seungkwan-hyung, no!" Chan wailed as Seungkwan dragged him down the hall in the opposite direction, "Aren't we too old for this? Besides, what can the two of us do alone?"

"Oh, it won't be just the two of us, Hansol's going to help, too."

"What? You've already talked with him?"

"Nope, but he will."

Chan rolled his eyes, he should have expected this from the vocalist. Sometimes he was just a little too eager to help, even though relationship problems should be dealt with privately. Besides, he trusted his hyungs to work things out on their own, but then again, that didn't stop him from worrying.

"I have sent a telepathic message to Hansol, he will meet us in my room later."

"Seungkwan-hyung, stop, it's embarrassing..."

But surprisingly enough, when they arrived at Seungkwan's room, Hansol really was standing outside, looking slightly confused himself as to how he ended up there. When he saw the two of them, he lifted a hand up to make an awkward small wave, still looking very much lost.

"W-what are you doing here?" Chan spluttered, blinking rapidly between Seungkwan and Hansol. What was this sorcery? It could be just plain coincidence, but there was no question that Hansol had been waiting there for them, or at least for someone.

"I just had a feeling that Boo was looking for me." Hansol shrugged as Seungkwan dragged him into the room by the collar along with Chan, meanwhile the latter decided to never question the 98-liners' closeness ever again.

"Hello, fellow maknae roles of each unit-"

"Oh, hey, I've never noticed that before." Hansol interrupted Seungkwan's supposedly solemn beginning of a speech, "That's actually pretty cool-"

"As I was saying, hello, fellow maknae roles of each unit," Seungkwan pushed on, flashing Hansol a glare, "As you all know, our hyungs are going through a crisis in their relationship, and I think it is our duty as the maknae line to help them through this hard time."

"...I don't think it has anything to do with being the maknae line-"

"Our duty." Seungkwan repeated, cutting off Chan's sentence.

Why act as though they were going to have a discussion when Seungkwan was going to dictate everything anyway? Chan hated himself for letting Seungkwan drag him into this. Besides, it wasn't like they could just force them to come to terms with one another, especially since the argument revolved around a work issue. In addition to all that, he felt bad for Hansol. While Seungkwan had apparently claimed himself as the Vocal Unit's representative, Chan would be the Performance Unit's representative, but then there was Hansol, his unit was completely uninvolved in the supposed "feud".

Needless to say, he was sure that Seungcheol must be trying to act as a mediator between Soonyoung and Jihoon as well, it must be especially hard on him. Still, it was a strange thing for Jihoon to do. Despite knowing the risk of getting into an argument with his best friend as well as his lover, he still stubbornly held his position on the matter, and more than anything, Chan wanted to know the reason behind that.

"Is it just me, or have Soonyoung-hyung and Jihoon-hyung been getting into a lot arguments lately?"

"No, it's not just you." Hansol replied, patting Chan on the back.

"...What are your views on the whole situation anyway?"

Hansol pondered for a moment as Seungkwan grabbed cushions from his closet and laid them down on the floor, so now the trio were sitting in a closed-in circle, "I think Jihoon-hyung is _trying_ to get into an argument with Soonyoung-hyung."

"What? Why would he do that?"

The youngest rapper shrugged, "Two theories. Jihoon-hyung and Soonyoung-hyung are best friends, maybe Jihoon-hyung's been feeling neglected ever since Soonyoung-hyung's engagement. I mean, that happened between Jun-hyung and Minghao-hyung a while ago, right?"

"Wait, how do you know about that?"

"Jun-hyung told me. Anyway, the second theory, we all know that Jihoon-hyung is the 'tough love' type, maybe he's just acting this way to rile them up so they'd put in more effort. Admittedly, Jihoon-hyung's and Soonyoung-hyung's methods in terms of preparing for performances clash. Jihoon-hyung is the practice makes perfect type while Soonyoung-hyung is strict during practice but not the type to 'over-practice' since he wants you guys to enjoy the actual performance. We've already seen how that also produced completely different results during 17 Project."

Seungkwan and Chan simply stared at Hansol with their jaws dropped. They hadn't expected such a lengthy answer, not to mention an entire analysis at that, and it actually kind of made sense, more sense than what they expected out of him anyway.

"...Wow, that was unexpected. I didn't know you were that involved..."

"Well, sometimes you see things clearer when you're _not_ involved."

"This is getting creepy, who are you and what did you do to Hansol?"

All right, Chan had to take everything he said about Hansol being useless for the "operation" back. Looks like he was going to be the key to smoothing things out between the hyungs. Now the next problem, how and where exactly should they start with this?

He didn't think that he'd want to do it, but for the sake of peace within the group, he guessed he'll have to go along with Seungkwan's crazy antics. Just this once.


	21. What Song Are You Listening To?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seokmin and Junhui somehow became very close after what Soonyoung deems to be an intimate session in an empty studio room. But of course like always, there was a catch, and unfortunately the boys would have to learn it the hard way.  
> People keep secrets to protect the ones they love, but only end up hurting them more, and Chan wonders why they never learn until it's too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very angst-heavy chapter

Regardless of whether the song was going to be supported by Jihoon or not, Soonyoung figured that his first priority was to show the company the Performance Unit hadn't been playing around since their return, and they were fully up and ready to redeem their position. So he turned in the completed track without telling the others, since he was sure they had their own problems to deal with.

The response he received from the board was amazing, he didn't remember receiving so much praise since, well, since debut. Praise didn't come easily in the first place for them since the company always made sure not to let their success get to their heads, but this time they seemed to be genuinely impressed by the Performance Unit's efforts. Relieved that they would at least get support from their company and they've proven themselves worthy of their own spots, Soonyoung left the office with a happy heart and his usual bright smile rebooted.

However, where there is happiness, there will be suffering, usually both at the same time, and Soonyoung fully experienced that when he heard muffled noises coming from a closed studio room. He was going to ignore it, thinking that it was probably Jihoon ranting to himself to ease off composer's block, but there appeared to be two voices talking, one of which sounded pleasantly familiar to Soonyoung.

Unable to resist his own curiosity, Soonyoung carefully and quietly opened the door to a tiny crack, just enough for him to get a general idea of the situation. Junhui and Seokmin appeared to be having some sort of private drink break, each had a cup of cola in their hands, and Seokmin was laughing at whatever lame joke Junhui must have cracked. Soonyoung swallowed. What kind of situation was this? These two rarely hang out so much in private, and it was getting a little unnerving. It wasn't that Soonyoung was scared of Seokmin being unfaithful, they've already made their relationship clear, but still, jealousy liked to play its games on the most unsuspecting prey.

"So will you do it?" Junhui asked, hopping onto the desk and swinging his legs in a carefree manner, "I know it's a Performance Unit gig, but it'd be really cool, you know?"

"Me, do aerobics?" Seokmin laughed, "This hyung really likes to joke."

Junhui merely chuckled in response, but carried on, "Then what about my other offer? It doesn't sound as out of place now, right?"

Seokmin paused, and Soonyoung watched as he fumbled with the now half-empty cup in his hands. The lead vocalist's gaze dropped to the floor, "I would have loved to contribute, but I think you should ask Seungkwan this time around."

"...So it's true?" Junhui's voice had gotten softer, pushing himself off the table, "It's fine, I heard from Jeonghan-hyung..."

"Who else knows?" Seokmin's voice rose slightly, his grip tightened around the cup.

"As far as I know, just the three oldest hyungs plus me." Junhui explained, lowering himself to Seokmin's eye level, "Seokmin, I'm sorry for bringing it up..."

Seokmin chewed on his bottom lip before replying with an obviously forced smile, "It's fine, nothing can stay a secret forever. But I would prefer it if we could drag out the process..."

"Of course." Junhui nodded, giving Seokmin's hand a squeeze, "...So, a secret for a secret?"

Seokmin blinked, confused about what the older was getting at, but nonetheless nodded. Soonyoung watched as Junhui leaned in, whispering something in Seokmin's ear. The latter's eyes grew wide in panic, "Jun-hyung, that's really serious! Shouldn't you-"

"Hey, I don't think you're in a position to say that." Junhui was smiling, but with exasperation, "But now that our stances are clear, I think we can trust each other to... cooperate."

He was hesitant, but Seokmin nodded.

 _Hold up, hold up, hold up, doesn't this sound like some really shady business?!_ Soonyoung thought to himself, trying very hard not to break in and demand an explanation. _What is Jun trying to get my Seokmin into? I swear to god, I-_

"Move."

Soonyoung jumped, whipping himself around to see the person he least wanted to meet under their current circumstances. Jihoon. The latter rolled his eyes and pushed open the door, looking momentarily surprised by Junhui and Seokmin's presence, not to mention misleading position, but quickly composed himself.

"What are you two doing?"

"Oh, whoops, you caught us! We were planning on keep this cola stash all to ourselves, but I guess we'll have to share!" Seokmin laughed robotically, jumping up from his seat and stuffing two bottles of cola into Jihoon's hands, then quickly zooming out, narrowly missing Soonyoung in the process.

Soonyoung opened his mouth to call Seokmin back, but the smiling virus had disappeared off somewhere without so much as a trace. He turned to Junhui instead. While looking seemingly unfazed by the presence of Jihoon, Soonyoung could see a glimmer of guilt in his eyes. On stage, Junhui was great at acting with his eyes, but off stage, he found it much harder to put up a front. Especially in front of Jihoon.

"Get off my desk." Jihoon said coldly, placing down his laptop and various files on the table next to the one Junhui was currently occupying.

"Hey, there's no need to talk to him like that!" Soonyoung piped up for his unit member, but Jihoon simply ignored him. Might as well, since Soonyoung wasn't in the mood for another argument. Come to think of it, they've been getting in a lot of those lately, haven't they? It used to be so peaceful, and they had the best work chemistry, so what happened?

Soonyoung chewed on his bottom lip lightly. Whatever. There was no use thinking about things he couldn't find the answer to.

* * *

Jihoon stared at the sight before him. Everything was a blur, literally. Everyone was rushing, trying to climb over each other and accidentally tripping over one another in the process. Where were they even going? Oh right, to Junhui. Jihoon continued to stare blankly, even as Mingyu accidentally ran into his shoulder in the latter's hurry to get to, well, the sorry black bundle on the floor covered in Junhui's clothes.

As the members scrambled to check whether Junhui was showing any signs of waking up from his blackout, Jihoon noted that the dancer seemed much thinner than he last remembered. Come to think of it, when was the last time he looked the guy in the eye after their argument? When was the last time he paid attention to his figure despite Junhui's constant nagging for Jihoon to eat meals properly? When was the last time he paid attention to the arms that were constantly making themselves around him?

"Well. Now I've gone and done it." Jihoon said out loud to himself while watching Mingyu and Wonwoo hoist Junhui up onto the van so that their manager could drive him to the hospital.

Soonyoung turned to look at the shorter boy. Jihoon expected him to brutally agree and barrage him with insults, but surprisingly, the dancer spoke in a softened tone, "It wasn't your fault, Jihoon. If anything, it was mine, I overwork him in the Performance Unit."

Jihoon was silent for a moment, looking down at the white cap in his hands. It was the cap Junhui always wore during practices, he claimed that it gave him strength. Jihoon had wondered if someone special had given it to him, but Junhui had refused to tell him. "There were four people in the Performance Unit, but he was the only one who fainted. I think that says something about your claim." He said quietly, dusting off the cap gently with his fingers, "Junhui is physically strong. It had to be personal stress."

Seungcheol gathered the members in the living room, all of them felt tense, even Seokmin and Seungkwan, who were usually always ready to lighten up the mood. They waited in silence for further information from their manager, who had refused to bring any of them along in case it stressed Junhui out even more, they weren't even sure what the cause of his blackout was anyway.

So when a message notification went off from Seungcheol's phone, everyone jumped and scrambled over to hear what the manager had to say. Except for Jihoon, who sat quietly in his corner on the sofa, still cradling Junhui's cap.

"He's awake." Seungcheol announced. Sighs of relief went around the room, but the tension did not cease as Seungcheol continued on with a grave tone, "One of his old leg injuries opened up, but it's nothing that can't heal. The part the doctor is most concerned about is his mental health."

Jihoon visibly tensed at that.

"As mentioned before, Junhui's old leg injury is acting up again, and he should be fine after rehabilitation, normally. However, he doesn't seem to _want_  it to heal." Seungcheol explained gravely, looking around the room at each of the members, "I'm sure you all know where I'm getting at."

"I'm going." Jihoon said dryly, standing up and walking towards the door.

"Jihoon, wait-"

"It's my fault."

"No, Jihoon, don't." Soonyoung sighed, "You know, you don't always have to do things alone. Let's all go together." Jihoon opened his mouth to say something, but the dancer carried on, "I don't care what you think, Junhui's one of my closest and oldest friends, so I'm going, whether you like it or not."

"No offense, but your opinion doesn't really matter in this situation, hyung." Seungkwan added cheekily, putting an arm around Seokmin's shoulders as the gag trio completed themselves.

The other members made agreeing noises and joined the other three at the front door.

"Well?" Jihoon turned to see Seungcheol coming forward as well, handing over the shorter boy's coat, "It's all or none."

The vocalist rolled his eyes, but took his coat from the rapper. _Cheesy bastards._

* * *

When they saw Junhui, the latter had smiled at them warily from his bed, but the doctor advised them to come forward one-by-one as to not overwhelm him. However, as soon as they began that, the team soon realized something extremely off. A glimmer of panic seemed to flash through his eyes whenever they got too close, and his fingers clenched the sheets so tightly that they could see his knuckles going pale.

In fact, he only allowed one member to come close enough to touch him, and that was, to everyone's surprise, Seokmin.

At that moment, Soonyoung knew that the whole incident was definitely linked to what he overheard that day, and he glanced sideways at Jihoon to see if the latter also caught this. But the vocalist merely stared at the scene before him, his expression unreadable.

Over the next few weeks, the members took turns visiting Junhui, but still, none of them could get as close as they wanted to. Junhui wasn't his usual loud and extra self either, he looked, well... like a patient. And it wasn't a good look on him.

One day, Jihoon decided to visit Junhui straight after practice, so he didn't have time to put away his guitar. It was too late when he realized people were flashing him odd looks, but at least Junhui's room was just right around the corner by then. But before he could open the door, the sound of people arguing exploded from the other side.

"I'm telling you not to give up!"

"Honestly? You can't be in a worst position to say that!"

"Guys, guys, lower your voices..."

Jihoon felt himself holding his breath, waiting for the conversation to continue, but the room seemed to have quieted down after the third voice's pleading. Tempted to press his ear against the door, Jihoon slowly crept closer, but the door slid open, almost causing him to walk straight into Jisoo's chest. Needless to say, the two figures retreating from the room were surprised to have almost literally bumped into Jihoon.

"Oh, you're in luck. Jun got tired and he's feeling a little drowsy from his medication." Jisoo said, his eyes narrowing curiously at Jihoon's guitar, but didn't question it, "I made him listen to some soothing music, he should be falling asleep by now."

Seokmin remained quiet and simply let Jisoo talk, Jihoon couldn't exactly read the vocalist's expression. Something was definitely going on between him and Junhui, and now Jisoo knew it as well. At that thought, Jihoon couldn't help feeling just a little envy. What was so secretive that Junhui would rather tell these two instead of him? His one and only boyfriend? Oh right, he wasn't even sure about that position anymore.

"Go on, before he wakes up and realizes he should be pushing you away." Jisoo joked, ushering his unit leader inside and closing the door softly behind him. Jihoon simply looked at the closed door dumbly. Sometimes Jisoo could say extremely potentially disturbing things.

But just as Jisoo said, Junhui was lying peacefully on the bed with earphones on, his face was turned towards the window, eyes closed. Quietly, Jihoon sat down on the chair next to the bed, just staring at Junhui's serene profile. It's been a while since he's seen him so relaxed, almost detached from the world. A new wave of guilt washed over Jihoon. It seemed that ever since Junhui got stuck with Jihoon, nothing had been going their way.

 _Maybe it was a mistake..._ Jihoon couldn't help thinking, stroking his fingers lightly over Junhui's cheek. "You look so calm in your sleep. Is it because I'm not there?" He half-joked to no one in particular. His eyes trailed down to the earphones, and with very gentle actions, Jihoon reached down and took out his guitar, strumming a few chords as softly as they allowed him to.

 _"What song are you listening to?_  
_Who is the singer?_  
_Who do you like these days?_  
_It changes with the weather and my feelings"_

He knew that Junhui couldn't hear him, but Jihoon continued to sing, half to entertain himself, and half to, well, in his mind this was a way to make up for giving Junhui the cold shoulder. Of course, it was only a blind source of comfort, but Jihoon didn't know what else to do. He simply got up and left after finishing the song.

In his rush, Jihoon had failed to notice that Junhui's earphones had fallen out at some point, and the latter was lying in the bed with his eyes opened, staring out the window with a complicated expression.

* * *

That night, Seokmin shared a bed with Soonyoung, it was the norm now that they were engaged. Well, it seemed to be the norm even before that. Still wide awake, Seokmin prompted himself up on his elbow and attempted to wake his partner up, but Soonyoung had practically turned into a snoring log. Seokmin sighed, but smiled softly at the sight. It was rare for Soonyoung to fall into such deep sleeps, especially with all the tension going on in the dorms lately.

"...Hey, Soonyoung?" Seokmin spoke quietly, knowing very well that his partner couldn't hear him, but he still found peace with the gentle snoring coming from the choreographer, "Let me tell you a secret..." He breathed in. Man, it was hard even though he wasn't directly telling him... "I'm losing my voice. I went to get my throat checked out earlier this month, and, well... The doctor said it's pretty bad, I must have overexerted myself because of the showcase..."

Soonyoung's sleeping position shifted slightly, but the soft snoring continued.

"But it's okay... Everything will work out fine..." Seokmin went on, but there was no trace of his usual smile on. What was the point of faking one now? "Actually, no, it sucks. Why now of all times? I thought I would be able to sing for a long time- forever, for you, but I guess I was too naive." His expression darkened even more as he shifted his gaze to the ceiling, "About Jun-hyung... He knew it was going to happen, his old injury had been bothering him for a while. Jun-hyung's leg is fine now, but he doesn't want to come back. Even though he's been working so hard for the showcase... It isn't fair. But I guess life isn't fair... I'm sorry, I'm rambling." Seokmin chuckled to himself, brushing a hand through Soonyoung's hair gently, "...Good night."

While Soonyoung remained blissfully ignorant for the whole time, Chan wasn't so lucky. There he was, laying half-asleep in bed until Seokmin's shocking confession came up. Now he was wide awake, and he definitely wasn't planning on going back to bed anytime soon after receiving that level of shock. After making sure Seokmin had lied back down, facing the wall, Chan got up as quietly as he could and slipped out of the room.

He had planned on getting a glass of water to calm himself down, but something else stopped him in his tracks. Seemed like Seokmin wasn't the only one who chose tonight to confess, except this one made Chan fall against the wall, too shaken to move.

Seungcheol was talking to himself, well, technically he was talking to Seungkwan, but the younger boy was busy sleeping while drooling on the front of their leader's pajamas. The older didn't seemed to mind though, and Chan wasn't all that surprised by this dynamic. But of course, he just had to walk in on the most important part- "Seungkwan, I need to tell you something. Well, you're asleep, but that's okay." He paused, rubbing gentle circles into the vocalist's back while glancing up at the top bunk, where Jihoon slept, "Jihoon and I have been discussing this for a while with the board, you know, about the Performance Unit... The truth is, we've been trying our best to convince them to keep those four, but I think... it's time to let go."

Chan didn't understand. He thought they were done with this shit. Haven't they proven themselves enough? Evidently not, but then... _when?_

"Ugh, enough." Chan sighed, closing his eyes, not caring that his arm was starting to fall asleep from getting squished against the wall. For some reason, Junhui's face came into view as he recalled the night they ditched Soonyoung and Minghao for convenience store ramen, "...Jun-hyung, I'm tired."

So much for being the mediators. So much for fixing their hyungs relationships. So much for being the diamond maknae line. They couldn't even sort themselves out.

"Hey, what are you doing out here?"

Chan rolled his eyes. And of course 'he' would conveniently find him in this vulnerable position. "Go back to sleep, Hansol."

The rapper didn't budge, in fact, he simply walked closer, "What's wrong?"

The younger boy licked his lips nervously. He was going to tell Hansol to mind his own business, but then he realized the running theme that's been ruining his hyungs' mentality and relationships lately. Secrets. White lies. And he was tired of that, all of it. So he turned to face his boyfriend, leaning into his chest softly, allowing Hansol's scent to surround him, numbing his senses, "Hansol, you won't let me go, right?"

"...Chan, what is this about?"

"Even when we grow old, you won't let me go, right?"

"Of course..." Although still confused, Hansol reached an arm around Chan's shoulders and pressed the youngest dancer closer.

"Even if we somehow end up living miles away for years?"

"Of course."

Chan sighed, pressing a soft kiss against Hansol's neck, "...That's all I need to know."

In his mind, Chan was laughing bitterly to himself. He scorned the hyungs for being dishonest, and the situation always seemed like they could be easily avoided if they just told each other their honest feelings, yet here he was, doing the same. Why did they let themselves believe that hiding important information from their loved ones was a form of protection?

 _When...?_ Chan thought to himself as Hansol's arms tightened around him. _When will we learn?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Isn't it such a coincidence how Hoshi really produced a song for the new album?
> 
> Sorry for the long disappearance of updates, and sorry for the angst.


	22. Pop Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junhui is forced to return to the dorm (doctor's orders), Jihoon tries his best to be a good boyfriend to Junhui, but the dancer still appears distant from everyone.  
> "If we really love them, we should let them go."
> 
> GyuHao development. A certain giant puppy is finally catching up.

Of course, Junhui couldn't avoid the members forever. Eventually, the doctor practically ordered him to return to the dorm, explaining to the manager that maybe he will be forced to have proper social contact then, which _may_ or _may not_ be good for his mentality. But only time will tell.

And so, despite Junhui's stubborn protests, the dancer was placed back into the dorm for what the doctor claimed to be the second half of his rehabilitation process. As he curled up in a corner on his bed, he gently brushed his fingers over his ankle, where the injury was. It no longer hurt nor stung, and Junhui knew he was in almost top condition physically after so many days of rest, but Soonyoung still thought that it was best for him to take a couple more days off.

"Return to practice when you want to, I won't force you." Were his exact words.

While Junhui was grateful for how understanding his friend was being, he also felt guilty for using it to his advantage. He wondered how long he still had to play dead for them to eventually kick him out. Yes, kick him out. It would be a far less troublesome issue for the others compared to if he asked to leave himself.

Only during moments like these did Jihoon's face flash before him. He closed his eyes slowly. After years of mutual pining, they were ironically brought together by separation. But now that they were actually " _together-_ together", Junhui couldn't wait to leave again. He loved Jihoon, he really did, and he knew Jihoon also felt the same. The fact that he cried for him; the fact that he got angry for him; the fact that he felt possessive over him; that was enough, and he should have been satisfied with just that. Yet, there was still a distance that Junhui couldn't quite grasp. Perhaps it came from Jihoon being the producer of the group, having to shoulder much more responsibilities than he did, or perhaps it was just from Junhui's own weak will, he couldn't quite tell anymore.

"Junhui." Speak of the devil.

The dancer's body tensed as Jihoon entered the room, taking light and cautious steps towards where Junhui was attempting to isolate himself from the rest of the world. Slowly, Jihoon dropped one knee on the edge of Junhui's bed, slowly crawling forward until he could see Junhui's face clearly. The latter wasn't looking at him, his gaze was distant as he stared off towards a focus point behind Jihoon.

"Junhui... do you want to come get lunch with us?" Jihoon asked softly. Ever since Junhui came back to the dorm, it's been a routine for him. And every time, Junhui would reject him. For a moment, it looked as though the dancer was actually considering finally leaving his room, but then shook his head. Jihoon simply nodded in an understanding manner before leaning forward and planting a feather soft kiss on Junhui's forehead, "Next time then."

The dancer waited patiently as the vocalist left the room, closing the door quietly behind him. Only then did Junhui allow a single tear to roll down his cheek.

_"Jihoon, do you want to come eat with us?"_

_"I'm busy."_

_"...All right, next time then."_

_Junhui closed the studio door in disappointment. Their producer was as cold as ever. Oh well, whether he liked it or not, they were going to bring back something for him and make him eat proper meals for once. He slapped himself in the face lightly. One day for sure, he will make Jihoon be the one to ask him out for a meal._

Jihoon had once been his reason to stay, his reason to put up a strong front, but now everything's been reversed.

* * *

 

"Jihoon, come listen to this." Seungcheol suddenly said one day after practice, holding up a flash drive and plugging it into the nearest computer.

"Is it the song Soonyoung produced with the others?" Jihoon asked, rubbing his temple tiredly.

Seungcheol nodded, handing a pair of earphones over, "Apparently the board was so impressed that they're thinking about giving it an exclusive MV."

Jihoon sighed and his scowl deepened, but nonetheless, quietly listened to the track. Meanwhile, Seungcheol studied the tiny changes in Jihoon's expression. How his eyes lit up slightly when Junhui's voice came on for the first line; how he nodded his head slightly to the beat; then eventually closed his eyes and allowed himself to simply enjoy the music, putting aside the skepticism he originally had of it.

When he was done, Seungcheol put away the headphones and looked at Jihoon with a hard gaze. Instead of asking what he thought about the track, Seungcheol decided to address an older issue that Soonyoung had swept under the rug already, but he certainly couldn't as the general leader for their group, "Jihoon, why were you so against the Performance Unit producing a song on their own?"

His actions were hesitant, but Jihoon slowly met Seungcheol's gaze, "...I didn't want them to forget their purpose. That's all. I know it seems like I'm restricting them, but I get scared sometimes. So many groups fail because they try to keep up with the fad illusion, they eventually forget what made them unique in the first place." He swallowed slightly at the unpleasant memory of his and Soonyoung's spat, which lead to his and Junhui's cold war, "I got worried."

"That's not all, is it?" Seungcheol prompted, his eyes not once moving from Jihoon's, "Come on, it's just the two of us now."

Jihoon sighed again, letting his shoulders drop from their unconsciously defensive position, "I can't hide anything from you, huh?" Chewing the inside of his bottom lip slightly, Jihoon began uneasily, "Somehow I saw it coming. I knew it would be good. Of course it would be, they're talented in every way possible, and very hardworking. Sometimes when I look at them I feel... It's such a waste that they're only a subunit. I know other people see it as well, other _companies_ see it. SEVENTEEN's nothing but a small flowerpot containing a sycamore sprout."

Seungcheol nodded slowly, leaning back against the wall in a tired manner, "I know we brought it up last time during that meeting with the board, also during that period where they were _actually_ taken away from us, but truthfully... do you really think they would have been better off staying at that company?"

"...I believe we made the wrong choice to bring them back." Jihoon admitted with difficulty, "We let our personal feelings influence our work."

"Well, you know what they say." Seungcheol sighed heavily, walking over to put a hand on Jihoon's shoulder, "If you love them, you let them go."

* * *

 

Chan shuffled his feet across the floor, flipping his cap forwards, staring seriously at the mirror in front of him to check his composure. _Hm, maybe this dance will be better without the cap._ He thought to himself, twirling the object on his finger absentmindedly as the music played on. Was he preparing for anything? Nope, it was just a form of venting. He found that choreographing allowed him to take his mind off things, only for a little while but it was better than nothing.

Suddenly, he felt impact against the side of his face and briefly went blind before realizing it was just a towel, and someone was wiping his sweaty hair down with it like they would to a soaked dog, "Seungkwan-hyung, I can do it myself!" Chan wailed, catching a glimpse of the bright colored hair from the mirror.

"Our baby is growing up so fast... Who knows when I'll be able to do this again?" Seungkwan said in his usual dramatic tone, though his actions softened slightly.

Chan tensed up, remembering the conversations he overheard a couple nights ago. He had thought about telling Soonyoung, but then he figured his leader probably already had too much on his plate to handle for now, what with Junhui's condition and the new song's choreography. Then there was Minghao, who was probably the calmest member in terms of facing Junhui's sudden change, though Chan did catch him swearing under his breath in Mandarin a couple of times when he thought no one was looking.

He had to admit he wasn't all that calm himself, even less so after that unfortunate night. He wasn't used to Junhui being quiet, and he definitely wasn't used to coming home and not finding Junhui clinging to one of the members. In fact, these days he hardly even sees Junhui because he shuts himself in his room.

"Seungkwan-hyung, do you think Jun-hyung will get better?"

"...Jun-hyung's strong." Seungkwan replied, throwing the now filthy towel into a laundry basket in the changing room.

"But, you know, no matter how strong someone is, there is always a breaking point..."

Seungkwan slapped a hand against Chan's shoulder lightly, "Shush, a kid shouldn't be saying such grownup things."

"I'm only one year younger than you..." Chan protested fruitlessly, "Seungkwan-hyung, what are you even doing down here?"

The vocalist paused his actions, briefly glanced around, then swallowed nervously, "I just, uh, happened to pass by." Chan let out a snort. Being completely honest, he had never seen a more unconvincing scene.

"Come on, really." Noticing Seungkwan's constant fidgeting, Chan raised an eyebrow. This hyung was usually very straightforward about what he wanted to say, and what he wanted from others, so what's with him today?

"Say, Chan, if, uhm... If a much more powerful company asked you to sign a contract with them, would you? By much more powerful, I mean, you know, Big 3 powerful, kind of..."

Chan's heart sank. He had a really bad feeling where this was going, maybe he should have just taken Seungkwan's lie. "...Hyung, you were awake that night."

It was Seungkwan's turn to look shocked, "You heard?"

"Yeah, I also saw you drooling all over Seungcheol-hyung. Why were you drooling over him when you were still awake?" Chan raised an eyebrow, recalling the scene that looked quite out of place from the serious conversation that had occurred.

"Well, have you seen Seungcheol-hyung's muscles?" Seungkwan rolled his eyes like it was a matter of fact, "Anyway-"

"And why were you sleeping on Seungcheol-hyung's bed?"

"All right, I think this is enough hyung-dongsaeng bonding for one day, don't you agree?" Seungkwan raised his voice over Chan's, dragging the maknae by the arm as they exited the room.

It was Chan's turn to roll his eyes. Well, at least he successfully deflected the focus off of a certain topic. It just proved to him that he wasn't quite ready to discuss the matter with anyone just yet.

He thought he was tired of secrets, and he knew that everyone else was as well, but it really wasn't that easy.

* * *

 

When Junhui opened his eyes at 3am, he found himself wrapped tightly in Jihoon's arms. He didn't know when the younger member had entered the room or how he managed to sneak in without waking Junhui up, but for some reason, Junhui didn't feel all that surprised to see him there. He remembered that as a workaholic, Jihoon would opt out on returning to the dorms at all on some nights, but sometimes he would finish work up earlier than expected and sneak back in while the others were still asleep.

Junhui would be the first to notice and climb into the same bed with him. He was positive that Jihoon must have woken up in the middle of his sleep from the fuss, but he never pushed him away.

Quietly, Junhui turned around, slipping Jihoon's arm out from underneath him, but touched the vocalist's forehead gently with his own, "Careful or you'll get really bad arm cramps in the morning. Speaking from experience." He joked under his breath, smiling slightly at Jihoon's sleeping face. He looked so innocent, harmless, _relaxed_.

The dancer traced a finger along the outline of Jihoon's cheek, an adoring look in his eyes. He rubbed the tip of his nose against the younger's, then planted a soft kiss on Jihoon's partly opened lips, "...Goodbye." But I still love you, and I _will_ still love you. Junhui swallowed the last part into his stomach.

Slowly slipping himself out from under the blanket without waking Jihoon, Junhui knelt down, grabbing a backpack he had packed beforehand. Looking around the room to make sure no one else was awake, he quietly walked down the stairs. He got to the backdoor with no problem, it was when he got outside that he was faced with a problem. More like, a person.

"Junhui."

The dancer slowly blinked, wondering if he was seeing things. There was no way this guy could be up so early... or rather, maybe he just hadn't gone to sleep at all, "Wonwoo, what are you doing outside?"

The rapper shook his head, "If you're asking me that... what am I supposed to ask you?"

"I guess you're right." Junhui laughed awkwardly, sliding his hand off the door handle, indicating for Wonwoo to come inside, but the latter didn't budge.

The two stood there, staring at each other, waiting for the other to give in. It was the first time in a while where Junhui actually felt uncomfortable silence between him and Wonwoo. But thankfully (or not), a new voice broke the cold war, "Guys, what's going on?"

"It's nothing, go back to Seokmin." Junhui replied, then regretted it. His tone had come out in an usually icy way, he didn't even know he was capable of speaking like that, and clearly, Soonyoung was taken aback as well.

The latter's eyes grew wide, then a scowl replaced his usual carefree expression, "Junhui, I probably should have asked this earlier, but what exactly is going on between you and Seokmin? Also, Wonwoo, get back in here, it's freezing outside." The rapper obeyed, closing the door behind him, but then refused to budge from the doorway, keeping a close eye on Junhui.

Junhui found himself trapped between Soonyoung and Wonwoo, one blocking his only means of escape, and one shoving him into a chair, staring intently into his eyes. Soonyoung didn't look like he was going to make another move until Junhui spilled everything to him. The oldest of the three let out a sigh, "If you want to know what's going on with Seokmin, it's better if you ask him yourself. As for my situation, it's really nothing."

"Nothing? If it's nothing, why were you trying to run off just now?" Soonyoung pressed, placing his hands upon Junhui's shoulders so that the older dancer was facing him properly, "Hey, you know you can tell me anything, right? We're Gemini pals."

"Attracted to each other like Gemini." Junhui couldn't help teasing, flicking a finger across Soonyoung's cheek lightly.

Wonwoo coughed from the doorway to remind the other two that he was also present and equally worried about Junhui.

The oldest of the trio sighed, adjusting his chair slightly so that he was facing both Soonyoung and Wonwoo properly, "All right. To tell you the truth, I don't know why either, I'm probably just getting a little tired. Let's face it, things haven't been the same ever since our controversial removal from the group, and it's just not fun anymore," Junhui pushed on as Soonyoung opened his mouth to interrupt, "I know, we should put more effort into working it out, but the tension is different from our usual spats... I'm just worried that we can never go back to being the same again."

Soonyoung closed his mouth, pondering over Junhui's words. He understood where he was coming from, and he couldn't come up with anything to counter it.

"Well, in my opinion... running away is never the answer." Wonwoo spoke, his voice soft but serious as he looked at Junhui with crossed arms, "Speaking as a friend who's lost you both once already, I don't think I'd be able to recover if it happened again."

Soonyoung and Junhui exchanged an incredulous glance, then simultaneously made their way towards Wonwoo, wrapping him into a sandwich hug. It was rare for Wonwoo to express his worries, in fact, Junhui felt like it was the first time he's ever seen his best friend in such distress despite his composed expression. They were probably even more similar than they thought, hiding their emotions so that the others wouldn't worry.

_"Am I that untrustworthy...?"_

Jihoon's words echoed in Junhui's ears. Doesn't it feel like he was just repeating the same mistakes over and over again?

"What's going on?"

The three broke apart, whipping their heads around as the lights switched on. Jihoon was standing in the doorway, a cap pulled over his bed hair, drowsiness still very much prominent in his eyes. Junhui watched as the youngest of the four began to blink rapidly at an uneven rhythm, trying to adjust to the bright lights. When the vocalist's vision finally grew focused, his eyes immediately landed on Junhui's backpack. A scowl crossed over his face.

"Jihoon, this isn't-"

"Don't." Jihoon cut Junhui off curtly, but a new layer of warmth entered his gaze at the sight of Junhui's panicked expression. He couldn't afford to come off cold towards him again. He didn't have the time. Slowly, Jihoon crossed over the room, wrapping a hand around the dancer's trembling fingers, "I don't say this enough, but I do trust you in everything you do. Everything you _decide_ to do. I made the mistake of letting you believe that I didn't, I won't let that happen again."

Junhui opened his mouth, then closed it again, chewing on his bottom lip. Jihoon didn't press him for an answer, nor did he expect a reaction. All the younger did was draw gentle circles on the back of Junhui's hand with his thumb. When another couple of minutes passed with no movement from any of the other three, Jihoon began to slowly guide the dancer back upstairs, his actions were soft, almost like coaxing a stray cat out of the shadows.

Soonyoung and Wonwoo followed, exchanging dubious glances with one another.

Change. It was inevitable. But whether it was for better or worse, that remained unknown.

* * *

 

Seungcheol wasn't even surprised when the company announced the cancellation of their showcase. It was just one "unexpected" event after another with these people. Normally, he would be greeted by sounds of protests, but the kids only responded with dead silence. It was as though all of them knew it was eventually going to happen. The atmosphere was so heavy in the living room that he couldn't help blurting out, "I'm sorry, if I had been a more competent leader-"

"Oh hush," Jeonghan cut in, pushing Seungcheol back down onto the couch, "We all know it wasn't something within your power. You're our leader, that doesn't make you responsible for everything bad that happens to us."

"Yup," Jisoo chimed in, nudging an elbow into their leader's side playfully, "Just like how you never take credit for when we perform well either."

Jihoon watched the exchange between the three eldest members, his work face on, "It was nobody's fault. The company didn't give us clear reasons as to why they decided to cancel last minute anyway." _But we can probably all guess..._ He thought to himself, trying not to glance towards Junhui's side of the room. He meant it when he said it was nobody's fault, but the company might see it otherwise. He was much more worried about the aftereffects.

The room fell into silence once more after a few murmurs of agreement and encouragement towards Seungcheol were muttered from uneven areas of the room. That was, until the sound of a door opening and slamming awoke the leader from his self guilt tripping. While he didn't see who had left, the worried look on Mingyu's face gave him a pretty good idea on who to bet on. Sure enough, the younger rapper got up from his seat after a few seconds of pondering his options, and bolted out the door to retrieve his lover.

As Seungcheol swept his gaze over the crowd, his eyes briefly met Seungkwan's, who quickly curved his neck back, pretending to be in some deep discussion with Seokmin and Soonyoung. He sighed. Just a while ago, he took pride in being able to have both personal and business problems separate and under control, but look at where they were now. It was hard to even distinguish between personal and business issues.

On the other hand, somewhere outside the dorm building, near the park where it all began for the Performance Unit, Mingyu finally managed to catch up to Minghao. The dancer had completely ignored the giant pup's pleads for them to go home or at least put on sunblock. But his nagging came to a sudden stop as Minghao placed his phone on a park bench, putting his playlist on shuffle. 

The dancer then proceeded to take off his jacket, throwing it in Mingyu's direction. Catching the garment just before it hit the floor, Mingyu looked up at his boyfriend with confusion while attempting to untangle his arms from the jacket's sleeves, "Minghao, what are you-"

"I'm a dancer, if I don't dance, what do I do?" Minghao cut him off coolly, taking off his cap and shoving it over Mingyu's head, "Hold onto this for me."

Although intrigued, Mingyu couldn't help muttering a complaint, "Seeing as you're using me as a human coat hanger already, why not?"

The dancer ignored his whine and proceeded to head towards the middle of the courtyard, leaping onto the edge of the park's central fountain. As the music came on, Minghao first tested his balance on the edge, then slowly moved to the beat with his signature b-boy footwork. He felt the blood in his veins quickening its flow, until he could feel sweat forming and trailing down his back. Maybe it was time to try out a couple of stunts.

Meanwhile, Mingyu couldn't help opening his mouth in awe at Minghao's freestyle dancing. Of course, he's seen it multiple times already, but it's still never failed to amaze him. But his awe quickly turned into alarm as Minghao did a sudden backflip, landing in the water. "Minghao!" The rapper quickly ran towards the fountain, leaning over the edge to check if Minghao had at least landed on his feet.

Luckily, Minghao had landed on all fours, and had pushed himself back up to the surface, throwing his head back to get his wet bangs out of the way. The scene felt oddly ethereal to Mingyu. His eyes traveled from Minghao's highlighted hair, to the droplets of water still dangling near the tips, then eventually rolling down the edge of his jawline-

"Whoo! Makes you feel alive, doesn't it?" Minghao laughed, using his elbow to wipe the water from his face, which was a futile attempt, of course, seeing as he was now drenched from head to toe.

"...Yeah." Mingyu replied numbly, reaching out a hand to help Minghao up. Once the dancer was safely on dry land again, Mingyu practically snatched his hand away, then looked away awkwardly.

Minghao looked at him with steady eyes, then slowly stepped forward until he could feel Mingyu's bangs sweeping over his forehead. The rapper seemed uncomfortable, but made no move to push the younger away.

The air fell silent, aside from a couple of sparrows chirping, and the goddamn fountain that now sounded like drums in Mingyu's ears. His other senses felt completely shut down as he watched Minghao's face grow closer and closer, and still, closer. Even when he felt the younger's lips on his own, Mingyu continued to stare dumbly into space, well, more specifically, into Minghao's eyes. He didn't know when he had moved his gaze away from the ground, maybe there was just something magnetic about those dark spheres.

 _Oh, please._ Mingyu gave himself a mental eye-roll. _You know exactly what's happening._

Everyone has to grow up at some point.

* * *

  

Soon after Mingyu and Minghao had left the room to supposedly get fresh air and clear their minds, Seokmin excused himself as well, stating he needed extra vocal practice. Scowling slightly at how the vocalist had turned down Seungkwan's offer to join him, Soonyoung quietly slipped after the younger boy.

Almost in a sense of deja vu, Soonyoung found himself pressing his ear against the practice room door, listening as Seokmin warmed up his vocals by running through scales. Out of nowhere, the vocalist suddenly jumped to practicing his high notes, the first couple seemed effortless as usual to him, but as he went higher, his throat tightened and he began to make croaking sounds.

Soonyoung's scowl deepened. Everyone had moments where their voices cracked, especially during practice, but it was unlike Seokmin to slip up, especially when he's only gone to his middle high range. Normally he'd be able to push through with no problem. Seokmin was obviously frustrated with himself as well, to the point that he almost sounded reckless, attempting to force the notes out, making terrible screeching noises that tore Soonyoung's heart out. He didn't want Seokmin to ruin his throat, but just as he was about to break in and stop the practice, he was stopped by Junhui. God knew where he came from.

The older dancer had his hand under the handle, indicating for Soonyoung to back away from the door. Once they were a little way down from the room, Junhui leaned against the wall, exasperation in his eyes as he looked over at his unit leader, "I think I owe it to you to be honest-"

"I don't want to hear your excuse, reason, or whatever, just tell me what you know." Soonyoung interrupted, his expression tense as he stared demandingly at his fellow performer.

Junhui heaved a deep sigh, then paused for a few more seconds as what seemed like guilt to Soonyoung flashed through the older's eyes, before finally speaking again, "Seokmin has vocal cord paresis. I don't... We don't think he can sing much longer." After another pause, Junhui corrected himself, "We don't think he _should_ sing much longer."

Soonyoung's stare was steady, but Junhui could tell that he was on the verge of barging into the room and forcing Seokmin to stop practicing. He needed the facts first though, "Is it curable?"

"There is a chance... but it's uncertain. The doctor asked him to take a break from singing until it goes away, but you know how he is."

The group's choreographer took a deep, but shaky breath. He slammed a fist against the wall next to him, "That idiot!" Soonyoung slowly collected his breathing, trying not to exert his frustration on everyone and everything he saw as he looked over at Junhui, "...You said 'we' earlier, who else knows?"

"Jisoo-hyung's the one who knows the most in detail, Seungcheol-hyung was vaguely told by the doctor, and what Seungcheol-hyung knows, Jeonghan-hyung is bound to find out eventually. Even I'm probably not fully informed because... you should know better than me, it's Seokmin."

The dance leader gritted his teeth, then bolted towards the practice room without another word.

What the two dancers had failed to notice, was Seungkwan quietly listening from around the corner. Well, now who was he supposed to talk to about _his_ problems?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weird SoonHui connection that I don't know why I included.  
> Seungcheol's role in the story is going to get increasingly more prominent from here on out.  
> (Also, to me, Minghao feels like the top in GyuHao but I'm not sure yet they kind of switch around in my mind)


	23. I Can't Take Control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The company introduces the group to a new arrangement in the most horrifying way; Jeonghan can't take control; Jihoon and Wonwoo go back to square one; yet in the midst of all the chaos-  
> "He seems... happier."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK LISTEN. This is the LAST chapter that will have more angst than fluff, I promise. I know it doesn't seem like it given the ending cliff hanger and just the entire chapter's direction, but-

Seungkwan has always been the sensitive type, and therefore he had the habit of basically hounding after everyone until they told him what was wrong. Because of that, he is often seen as one of the best shoulders to cry on in the group, but that also meant taking up their part of the burden, and adding onto his own. It wasn't until Seungcheol had somewhat accidentally confessed to him that he decided to start sharing his problems, but sadly given the huge mess and tension within the group lately, Seungkwan wouldn't dare to increase their leader's stress level.

He wanted to talk with Chan, but that child could be as sensitive as him sometimes, and he would rather not bother any of the hyungs. His last resort was Seokmin, but then he stumbled upon his fellow main vocalist having a heated argument with Soonyoung.

"Do you realize how _stupid_ you're being?! If you go through with vocal therapy, you'll be able to sing again-"

"The therapy will go on for an uncertain amount of time, I can't make the fans wait for that long-"

"But then you'll be gone _forever_ , you idiot!" There was a clatter as Soonyoung kicked over a chair in his rage. "Isn't singing the most important thing in the world to you? So why are you doing this to yourself?"

Seokmin was silent, but his voice was shaking as he responded, "Sometimes I feel like... I am nothing if I don't sing."

"Jesus fucking- that's _ridiculous_ -"

"Soonyoung, calm down-" Junhui attempted to step in, but his hand was slapped away. Scowling, the older dancer crossed his arms, "All this yelling is just straining his voice, isn't that what we're trying to avoid?"

Their main choreographer turned around, shifting his glare from Seokmin to Junhui, eyes wild. For a moment, Seungkwan expected him to transform into a tiger and tear Junhui limb by limb. Soonyoung opened his mouth, then closed it, gritting his teeth as he stormed out of the room.

The three members left in the room stayed in uncomfortable silence. Eventually, Seokmin also exited the room, but walked towards the opposite direction. Junhui sighed, his shoulders relaxing as he scratched the back of his head, exasperated. Turning to Seungkwan, the older let out a tired smile, "Sorry you had to see that, are you okay?"

Seungkwan shifted his gaze from the floor towards the strained smile on his hyung, who was normally energetic and acted like a dongsaeng himself. Quietly, the vocalist replied, "I don't know, Jun-hyung... I should be asking you that."

* * *

_'Pledis has terrible management'_

_'well what did you expect, it's pledis'_

_'such a shame, svt was just reaching their high point'_

_'it's nuest 2.0 kkkk'_

 

Seungcheol tried to block out all the negative comments online, focusing on the greater issue. Overnight, _six_ of his members have gone missing, and although he contacted the manager, there doesn't seem to be any action taken to retrieve them. Various scenarios started popping into the general leader's mind. Did they voluntarily leave? All six of them? Were they forcibly removed? Just what was their company thinking?

"Hey, calm down-"

"Six of us are missing, Jeonghan, I _should_ be panicking!" Seungcheol snapped, shrugging his best friend's hand off his shoulder.

Jeonghan sighed, glancing at the clock. It was well past midnight, certainly an odd time for all of them to be away. "Look, you think I'm not worried? Jisoo's missing, too, and he barely leaves the dorms unless we have practice. But as the hyungs, we have to stay calm before the kids catch on. Now keep looking online for any sightings of them."

Although still infuriated and anxious, the leader turned back to his laptop obediently. Jeonghan was right, this was priority, and if they can't find anything, their members would be officially missing for 24 hours, then the authorities will _have_ to do something.

Luckily for him, or at least in the moment, Seungcheol's phone buzzed, it was a call from their manager. Apparently the director has arranged an emergency meeting with him, and the other two unit leaders. Something twisted in Seungcheol's gut. The timing of the whole situation made him feel sick, but he didn't want to believe it.

He should have trusted his gut feeling.

 

~✦~✦~✦~✦~✦~✦~✦~

 

Seungcheol stared at the director, Soonyoung and Jihoon were by his side, but they, too, were petrified. "Could you," the oldest spoke, voice cracked, "Could you repeat that, please?"

"From today onward, SEVENTEEN will be continuing activities as two units. SVT-ROSE and SVT-SERENITY." The director replied calmly, his icy gaze focused on the trio. Sometimes Seungcheol wondered if he was even human. He certainly didn't speak or think with any sense of humanity.  


"That's bullsh-"

"And how long will we be ROSE and SERENITY?" Jihoon asked before Soonyoung could jump over the table and break their boss's nose. From the way he stumbled slightly on the new unit names, Seungcheol could tell that none of them were comfortable with this arrangement, not that it was anything surprising.

The director folded his arms, his chest heaved as though a sigh were about to come out, but he suppressed it in the end. "For as long as it takes." The suited man almost looked tired, as though he wasn't so sure himself.

"For what?" Soonyoung demanded, still very much ready to pounce and tear their current enemy to shreds.

The subject of their interrogation sat up, setting his hands down on the table, and this time the sigh escaped. Slowly, the director looked each of them in the eyes, settling on Seungcheol in the end. "Jisoo, Junhui, Wonwoo, Mingyu, Seokmin, and Chan, all came to me on their own accord, and asked for this to be arranged."

"And you just let them?!" None of them could believe it. How could this man, the unmovable Ice King, just grant something this big so easily? Especially without having even one discussion with them first.

"If six people from a group came to you simultaneously, practically begging for 'change', doesn't that prove there's a problem?" Their director sighed again, and this time he didn't bother to hide the stress from his tone, "And this is the solution they came up with. Would _you_ have said no?"

Jihoon turned and excused himself from the room, closely followed by Soonyoung, who kicked the trashcan out of frustration on his way out. Seungcheol glanced at the floor. There were still so many questions unanswered, but at this point, it seemed as though the director only knew just as much as they did. But at least, even though it was just one second, Seungcheol was able to confirm that they weren't working for a heartless monster.

* * *

 

Breakfast next morning was grim. Of course it would be, there is no easy way to tell your members that six of their closest friends have gone away somewhere, for an indefinite amount of time. The only thing keeping them "tied" was their shared title of "SVT". Although the company claimed they would just be in different units, it felt like they were in separate groups.

"If we're just different units, why haven't they come back to the dorms?" Jeonghan asked, scowling while the younger members' mouths gaped open, still processing the information.

"They will be using our old dorms, apparently. I'm really not sure why... I just know that all conditions were set by those six, the director claimed he didn't change or add to their requests." Seungcheol explained, frowning at the memory. It was the most dreadful experience he's had so far in that office, and that was saying a lot.

"Do we really trust this guy though? I mean, he did try to sell the Performance Unit..."

"Jeonghan, can we talk in private later?" Seungcheol sighed, running a hand through his hair, exasperated. He had been asking himself the same questions over and over last night. But nothing bothered him more than the fact that the six members of ROSE had gone to the director, willingly asking for the separation. None of them had even shown signs of wanting this change, besides maybe Junhui, but that was a different situation.

He felt a light pat on his shoulder, and turned to see Jihoon, looking strangely calm despite the circumstances. For a moment, Seungcheol thought all the suffering lately with both private and public drama had finally broken him, but Jihoon's tone was soft instead of detached as he spoke, "You can go talk now. Soonyoung and I can take care of the others."

The older boy looked towards Jeonghan, who nodded and got up, disappearing into the next room with the former following shortly after. Seungkwan got up from his seat, but Hansol pulled him back down. "Let the hyungs figure things out first."

"I know that, but-"

"Honestly, do you still think of Jeonghan-hyung as a threat?" His friend chuckled. Seungkwan envied him to a certain extent. Hansol, now SERENITY's maknae, appeared to be the only one who could even crack a smile right now. Seungkwan knew it wasn't because he didn't care, he was just better at hiding it than others.

...And to be honest, that made Seungkwan sadder than anything.

 

~✦~✦~✦~✦~✦~✦~✦~

 

"I just can't accept this. Why would Jisoo do this without telling us? Without telling _me_?" Jeonghan fretted, pacing all around the room while Seungcheol leaned against the wall, hands tucked into the pockets of his hoodie, eyes staring straight down at the floor. He wished he had the answers, or even words of comfort, but he had neither, nor was he receiving any.  


"Yeah..." the rapper muttered, "I thought he'd mention something to you, at least."

"Well, he didn't."

It's been a while since Seungcheol's seen Jeonghan in this state, frankly, a mess. Normally the two of them were able to have a coherent and logical conversation or discussion, no matter how difficult things were, but Jisoo volunteering to "leave" seemed to have cracked something in the vocalist. It certainly didn't help when their manager announced their missing 95-liner would be the leader for ROSE. "Look, I get you're upset, we all are. But it's nothing we can't get through once we're back on our feet-"

"Easy for you to say, Seungkwan's still here with you, isn't he?" Jeonghan snapped, whipping his head around to glare at his leader.

Seungcheol blinked slowly, "Jisoo to you is not like what Seungkwan is to me." In a quieter voice, he added, "Is he?"

The rapper felt Jeonghan's glare drilling holes into him, the latter's voice trembled, "He isn't. But ever since I joined the company, he's been there for me. Always. Without fail. And now-" the vocalist's voice hitched, and he paused to take a couple calming breaths, "And now... Oh God, Seungcheol, what are we going to do? Jisoo's gone."

"He's not _gone_ , Jeonghan-"

"And Channie's also there, Seokminnie, Junnie... will they survive?"

The older sighed, stepping away from the wall to put a comforting arm around his friend, "The kids are strong, we have to toughen up, too." He sighed again, glancing towards the doorway where hushed whispers could be heard, it seemed like the other members had started their own discussion on how to proceed. He turned back to Jeonghan, "Also, we're gonna have to figure out what to eat, now that Mingyu's temporarily unavailable."

* * *

 

But Jeonghan without Jisoo was like a different person, and sadly things didn't get better. Seungcheol often caught him zoning out in the middle of discussions, meetings, and even during practice. Although he was able to play it off to avoid trouble from the staff for the most part, the other members were catching on. Jeonghan was one of the members who kept everyone's spirits up, and balanced everything out, so Seungcheol knew that when he falls, everyone will.

"No, no, Jeonghan-hyung, you got it wrong again!" Soonyoung slammed his finger down on the stop button, frustration evident in his voice.

The older smiled tiredly at him, "I'm sorry, Soonyoung... I'll get it right the next time-"

"That's what you said last time, too. Everyone has the new choreography down except for you, we really need to pick it up or-"

"Soonyoung, take it easy on him. You know..." Seungkwan trailed off, giving a fleeting glance towards the empty guitar rack.

Although it seemed like the choreographer was going to lay off on the scolding, a certain other dancer had a different opinion. "So what? We're all suffering here."

"Minghao-" Soonyoung turned sharply to the break dancer, whom had remained silent during recent discussions, he was getting worried that the bottled up frustration would spill, and now really wasn't the time.

"Get your act together!" Minghao blurted out, glaring at the tired out vocalist. "I know how much Jisoo-hyung means to you, I do. Junnie-hyung was the first person who talked to me, and even though it was awkward at first, he was the one who got me into the circle. You think I don't miss him? You think I don't feel betrayed? He's always been with me, even during the whole Performance Unit mess, at least we still had each other then. How _the fuck_ do you think I feel now?"

The other members shifted uncomfortably, they really didn't want to get on a furious Minghao's bad side. Although taken aback by the younger's outburst, Jeonghan returned eye contact calmly. "I'm sorry-"

"You damn right should be. You think-..." Minghao's voice quivered, and he was forced to look away, hiding his face with his cap, "I swear to God, if it weren't for our scheduling I'd be down there beating the crap out of Mingyu, and demanding answers from them."

Soonyoung, Jeonghan, and Seungcheol immediately crowded around their dongsaeng, hugging him and telling him it would be all right, promising that they'd confront ROSE together on their first off day, and so forth. Meanwhile, Seungkwan heard a sigh from Hansol, and approached him in the corner. "I'm guessing you haven't heard anything from Channie?"

"He's not replying to my texts. I don't know if he even read them." Hansol responded, an unconvincing smile on his face. "He'll come around."

"He didn't leave because of you." Seungkwan said firmly, sitting down next to his best friend, and putting a hand over his in a comforting manner.

"You don't know that."

"I know, because he's madly in love with you."

The youngest rapper let out a laugh, nudging Seungkwan in the shoulder. "I remember he had a phase where he'd write nothing but love lyrics in his rap verses... How was I supposed to know they were about me?"

"Aren't you glad I told you?" Seungkwan smirked, nudging him back harder.

"Sure, sure, thanks, Kwanpid."

The vocalist snorted, turning back to their hyungs, who were now crying in a heap together. He felt Hansol's fingers tighten around his, and he knew they were synchronizing thoughts again. _Thank goodness we're still together..._ As the only complete line remaining from their full group, Seungkwan knew they'd need to rely on each other more than ever now.

The only person missing out on both sides of the room had excused himself from the space altogether, slipping around the corner to check his phone.

 **woozip:** can we talk?  
**woozip:** wonwoo, please.

 **bagofwon:** han river 6:30

* * *

 

"Who knew I'd be meeting with you at Han River of all people?" Wonwoo joked as Jihoon rolled his eyes. He ought to be more excited to see a teammate he hadn't met for some days, but there were more pressing matters to attend to.

"Why did you leave?"

"We didn't 'leave', we're just-"

"No," Jihoon shook his head, looking Wonwoo straight in the eyes. "Why did _you_ leave? Why are you going along with this?"

The rapper was silent, returning Jihoon's gaze calmly, an unreadable expression on. Slowly, he turned towards the river, leaning further over the bridge's borders, watching the water flowing smoothly underneath. Both of their reflections seemed like quivering flames on the surface. "Jisoo-hyung came to me with the proposal."

"So Jisoo-hyung was the one who started it..." the vocalist murmured to himself, scowling slightly. That was one question answered, though it honestly just made Jihoon even more confused. "And what was the proposal?"

"I imagine it was different for everyone."

 _Oh lord, Jisoo-hyung's the fucking devil..._ Jihoon thought to himself, fingers tightening around the railings. This was turning out completely different than what he had expected. "So what was it for you?"

Wonwoo's lips pressed into a thin line, his gaze darkened. "That's not important, because it wasn't what made me cooperate."

"Then for fuck's sake, just get to the point." The young producer growled, patience draining. Right now, Wonwoo was the only member reachable, and that itself is also a mystery, but Jihoon needed to tackle one thing at a time.

"He told me..." Wonwoo took a deep breath, then turned to meet the vocalist's fiery glare, "He told me that Junnie had decided to go with him. That's why I decided to join in."

Silence washed over, and they could practically hear bubbles bursting on the river's surface. Jihoon's bottom lip trembled, brain quickly processing and connecting information. Quietly and slowly, he opened his mouth, choosing his words carefully as to not to cause an eruption from himself, "You went... because of Junnie."

"That is correct."

"You said you had no feelings for him."

"That is also correct."

"That makes no fucking sense!" Jihoon slammed his hand down, ignoring the pain from his knuckles. "Just admit it already, you're _infatuated_ with him. You just want to keep him for yourself-"

"That is _not_ true-"

"Don't you fucking tell me it's not fucking true!" The producer hardly cared that his vocabulary list seemed to have shortened by a full mile, all he wanted to do was destroy Wonwoo in some way, "You're just so desperate to keep him by your side, you don't even care about the rest of us."

"Now that is definitely not-"

"Wonwoo, just..." Jihoon closed his eyes, taking a deep breath to calm himself down, "Just leave. I know I was the one who wanted to meet, but- God, this was a mistake." The shorter sighed, rubbing the crease formed by his scowl.

The rapper opened his mouth as though to put in one last form of defense, but closed it again after a second thought. Looking away, Wonwoo frowned to himself, then took a step back, "I'll see you around then..."

"Wait," Jihoon called, still not facing the other, "How has he been doing? Is Junnie... happy?"

There was no answer, and the vocalist was almost convinced Wonwoo had left, until his phone buzzed in his pocket. "I'll let you judge for yourself."

Jihoon waited until the footsteps had faded away before swiping open his lock screen, clicking into the attachment Wonwoo had sent. It was a video of Junhui, dated today. The boy who had spent his last few days locked up in his room was now sitting by a piano, playing a serene melody, laughing bashfully when praised by members off screen.

In the background, Jihoon could hear Seokmin adlibbing to Junhui's piano playing, and Chan cheering them on. Mingyu didn't say anything, but Jihoon could see him standing next to the piano, watching the pianist at work. The music and singing stopped abruptly, and there was a flurry of noise as the present boys all flocked to a point off screen with excitement, and that was the end of the video.

 

~✦~✦~✦~✦~✦~✦~✦~

 

By the time Jihoon got back, the commotion had died, and practice had resumed. Soonyoung's eyes widened at the sight of him, and everyone dropped what they were doing to cluster around him, "Where did you go?! We thought you went to find ROSE by yourself-"

"I met with Wonwoo."

"What?! And what did he say? How are the others?" Soonyoung immediately fired out his motormouth, asking every possible question in existence while the others threw in their own, squabbling like a nest full of baby birds.

Jihoon's shoulders dropped, his gaze fell to the floor. With difficulty, Jihoon croaked out, "They seem... happier."

* * *

 

Just like that, the boy group SEVENTEEN broke off into two units, although it caused confusion at first, and some fans were outrageous, some were indifferent, Pledis assured the public that they were still "one group", and that it was strictly a temporary situation. But in reality, they weren't sure how long they'd be able to maintain this without the fans wondering just what the heck was _really_ going on.

That was a question no one could answer, at least not within SERENITY. The only way to get answers was to confront ROSE, and Seungkwan was determined to get the answers to his problems this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _do you trust me_


End file.
